A Necromancer In The Making
by Cheerfully Blue
Summary: In Chloe's POV. A SEQUEL TO A WEREWOLF IN THE MAKING! It's a good story, even if it starts out a bit slow. Involves a test of both Chloe's and Derek's love, as well as Jessa's and Simon's love. Can love really save everyone or will bounds be broken?
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, this story is a sequel to A Werewolf In The Making so if you haven't read that story, you're going to be lost. (You're welcome to try and read this without reading the first one, but don't get mad at me when it doesn't make sense. And I know that the first story is about Simon and a new girl, but it's good, I swear!) And as I promised, I would post before Halloween, and since I really want to know what you guys think, I'm posting this earlier than I thought I would.**

**But there are a few things you should understand. 1) This is mostly in Chloe's point of view, switching to certain people when needed. 2) The first chapter sucks compared to the rest of my writing, but it gets better I promise because everyone knows the first chapter sucks. 3) I love reviews and I would love it if you reviewed, both good and bad are accepted, don't go easy on me.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned the Darkest Powers series I wouldn't be wasting my time on writing fanfiction, I'd spend it writing my next novel. So in other words: I don't own the Darkest Powers series.**

***Only about two months after the epilogue of the first story (which means about three months after Jessa's attack)***

Chapter 1: Jealousy

Chloe sighed quietly, so quietly that no one could hear her and know that she was just tad bit annoyed, sad, and bored. But then Derek shifted and looked down at her with slightly worried eyes and she revised her thoughts to having sighed so quietly that no one could hear her unless they had werewolf hearing. He raised an eyebrow at her and she just quietly shook her head and leaned it against his chest. The arm he had around her waist squeezed her slightly, and she closed her eyes and listened to the steady thrum of of the van driving down the highway.

They were moving. Again. And even though Chloe had spent her whole life moving from one school to the next thanks to her dad's job, she still didn't enjoy it. She never liked it, but she had always kept her mouth shut and went with the flow, a lot like she was doing right now.

They had woken up early that morning, far earlier than any of them wanted to wake up. Then Kit and Aunt Lauren, both wide away from steady coffee hits, shoved them into the over-stuffed van and they set off for their new destination. Kit was driving and Aunt Lauren was talking with him from the passenger seat. Chloe was curled up next to Derek in the middle seat, and a sleeping Tori sitting to her right. Behind her Simon and Jessa had some how managed to both lay down in the backseat of the van and fall asleep.

Chloe frowned as something hit the back of her seat and lifted her head and turned to see both Simon and Jessa moving around in their sleep. As she watched, Jessa's hand flung itself into the air, narrowly missing Simon's face, and then rested limply on his chest. Then Simon kicked out and his foot connected with Chloe's seat again, almost causing Jessa to roll off the small seat they were squished onto. Chloe briefly wondered how those two could sleep together and not wake up with black eyes. But she just shook her head and turned around, leaning back into Derek.

They were heading for Kentucky this time, far far way from the state she had grew up in. Even if she was constantly moving, New York had always felt like her home. But now they were heading away from it, and even though Kentucky wasn't that far away, not really, it still caused a slight bit of darkness to rise in her heart at the thought of leaving her home state behind. They weren't even leaving from New York at the moment, but Maine. They had spent the last three and a half months moving back and forth across the state, always on the run from enemies they couldn't see. Now Kit wanted to throw anyone who was on their trail off it completely. So they were heading for Kentucky.

Derek kissed her hair lightly, "You should sleep." He murmured, his voice seemed loud in the quiet car.

Chloe silently agreed with him. They had been on the road for hours and there was no end in sight. Already the sun was poking its bright head up over the horizon, letting her know that the day was continuing whether she wanted it to or not, and sleep depravation wasn't going to improve anything. With another sigh that only Derek heard, Chloe snuggled up closer to him, closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the car and Derek's heart as they lulled her into sleep.

* * *

Before she knew it, Chloe was being woken up by Derek. She looked around, squinting, and saw that they were at some random gas station and the sun had rose quite a bit while she had been asleep.

"We're stopping to get breakfast and gas." Derek explained.

Groggily Chloe nodded and together her and Derek preceded to spend five minutes trying to convince the other three to wake up. Once out of the car, Tori scrambled for the gas station's door pushing the others aside, "Move! I have to pee!"

"Just what I wanted to know." Simon groaned. Jessa smiled at him, then walked off after Tori, her hand lingering on his chest.

After all three girls went to the restroom.

Chloe stood in front of the mirror, trying to calm her tumble weed hair, which was really hard when you only had your hands to work with.

"Here." Tori came up behind her a handed her a brush.

"Thanks." And Chloe got to work on hair, working out the knots and trying to rein it back into some sort of control, while Tori ran her hair under the faucet, spiking the short black strands up with her fingers. After her hair was passable Chloe washed her face and tried to do something about her bloodshot eyes.

Jessa stood behind the two girls the whole time, leaning against the wall and yawning sleepily, looking as beautiful as ever. Jessa really was a natural beauty, no matter what she had just done or where she just came from she always looked beautiful, something that greatly intimidated Chloe. While she was brushing knots out of her tangled mess of hair and putting on make-up, Jessa stood behind her with her perfect straight black hair and her dark eyelashes that surrounded the most beautiful green eyes. Chloe loved Jessa's eyes, they were the color of a cat's, bright bright green, and stood out in contrast with her black hair and pale skin adding an exotic look to her gorgeous face.

Chloe's jealousy towards the girl creeped up and made itself known.

When the girls were done in the restroom they roamed the store choosing their food and looking at the cheap souvenirs.

"I want this!" Tori said, shoving a giant giraffe in Chloe's and Jessa's faces.

"I don't think there's enough room in the car." Chloe told her, frowning at the giant stuffed animal that was probably only half a foot shorter than she was.

Tori frowned as well, scrutinizing the animal with great seriousness before shrugging and going off to put it back where ever she found it.

Simon and Derek entered the aisle they were standing in, their own food in their hands. Derek quietly took the sausage biscuit with cheese that she had picked out and added it to his own overly huge pile of food.

"You can't be serious." Simon said when he saw what Jessa had picked out to eat. In the female werewolf's hands were a box of cereal, a half gallon of milk, a plastic bowl, and a box of plastic spoons.

"What?" Jessa asked innocently, glancing down at her cache, "Do you not like Captain Crunch?"

"You can't be serious." Simon repeated.

"Oh, I'm completely serious." Jessa said, smiling darkly, her bright green eyes sparkling.

"Don't try arguing with her," Chloe interrupted Simon as he opened his mouth to speak, "Believe me, I tried."

"And failed." Jessa said, brushing past them to look at some sort of glass statues, "A growing werewolf/necromancer has to eat now, doesn't she?"

And yes she did say werewolf/necromancer. Jessa could both transform into a wolf and see ghosts because she was just that special. Not that either of those gifts came without side effects. Jessa had only just become a full grown werewolf a few months ago, and thanks to being experimented one as a child, that transformation was a lot harder than was the norm. And she was able to see ghosts because scientists had taken werewolf DNA with and necromancer DNA and grafted them together to create a werewolf who could see ghosts, AKA Jessa.

That's how they all were, they had all been experimented on as kids in the hopes of improving the supernatural races, only none of them remembered it. Except Jessa and Derek.

Simon sighed deeply and shook his head, knowing there was no point in arguing with his girlfriend over this: wise man.

* * *

And before they knew it they were back on the road, driving down yet another highway.

"No, no, no! It's not my fault, I swear!" Jessa said, munching on her cereal as she sat as close to Simon as she could get without actually sitting on his lap. Chloe, Tori, and Derek were turned around and talking to them. They were in the middle of Jessa's explanation of how Derek had received a scratch on his face the night before when Jessa and him had been running around as wolves. "It was this oafs fault!" Jessa gestured towards Derek, "He was the one who didn't _move_!"

Derek glared at her, "Well I didn't think you were going to try and gouge my eye out."

"I didn't try anything! It was an accident. An accident that could've been avoided if you would have moved!" Jessa raised her voice on the last sentence.

Chloe listened as her and Derek started to bicker back and forth, insulting each other but it wasn't serious enough to be considered a fight. Inside Chloe was... well she was jealous. Again. Derek wasn't like this with anyone except Jessa; with her he was down right playful, more open and free. Chloe told herself over and over again that it was just because Jessa was a fellow werewolf and he was just reacting instinctively towards her because she was his own kind, but still it worried her. She never doubted Derek's love, she knew he loved her and she loved him, she _knew_ that. And she knew that Jessa loved Simon and Simon loved her, that was more than obvious. But she couldn't help feeling jealous of Jessa for being able to draw out a part of Derek that she herself never could. The thought dug deep down inside of her, twisting in her gut, giving her dark feelings that she didn't really want.

Jessa sighed, and leaned weakly against Simon, "You're brother is ridiculous." She told him sadly, "And Chloe, I'm sorry I scarred his beautiful face, _but it was an accident!_" The last five words were shot at Derek.

Derek heaved a sigh, and shifted the arm that was around Chloe's waist, then started to gently pull at her hair, twisting it around his finger. Chloe smiled, he very rarely played with her hair, but she loved it when he did, it meant he was totally content with himself and worry free, and that was she wanted. "I accept your apology." Derek said heavily to Jessa.

Jessa shot him a face, "What apology? I apologized to Chloe, not you. You don't deserve one, you didn't move. Entirely your fault. In fact you should be apologizing to me. Remember when you threw me into that tree? Hmm? Well, look what I woke up with this morning." And with that Jessa preceded to pull her shirt up and show a huge purple bruise the size of a basketball covering her left ribs. "And you can bet that it hurts!"

Chloe stared in horror as she looked at Jessa's new injury and wondered how she could talk about it so lightly. Chloe knew the two werewolves always came back from the woods with a new set of injuries, but that one had to be the worst she had seen on them. But maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked, maybe what made it worse was the huge scar that was underneath it. A few months ago Jessa had ran into some trouble with some werewolves that had threatened them, and she ended taken a beating. They attacked her and nearly killed her, and she was left with a huge scar that covered her belly and her ribs. It was lumpy and pale and weird looking and Chloe wondered how Jessa could live with having something like that be apart of her.

Simon touched the bruise with his fingers, and Jessa flinched and he pulled back quickly. "No, it's okay," Jessa smiled at him, "your fingers are just cold." She then wrapped his hand in hers and laid her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and yawning.

"You need to sleep, you stayed out too late last night." Simon said.

Jessa replied with something they couldn't hear and then snuggled closer to them and fell asleep right in front of their eyes. Chloe, Derek, and Tori all turned around realizing that the conversation was over.

"How much longer are we going to be in the car?" Chloe asked Derek doing her best to hold back a yawn, still unbelievably tired.

"About another day and a half. We'll get there late tomorrow afternoon." Derek replied, still pulling at her hair. "Hopefully."

Chloe turned to look at him, "I thought we were going to Kentucky. Is it really that far away?" She frowned, trying to imagine her 8th grade geography map.

"No, it's not really that far away," Of course Derek would know, "But Dad is just taking the round-about way to throw anyone off our trails."

"But I thought going to Kentucky was supposed to throw them off our trails."

"This is to throw off the really smart ones." Derek smiled at her as she sighed impatiently.

"Not a fan of road trips?" Derek asked.

"Not long ones." She muttered, glowering at a sign that said welcome to West Virginia.

Derek laughed quietly and she smiled, rejoicing in his happy mood, that, invariably, infected her as well.

* * *

They pulled off the road and checked into a motel around 8 o'clock that night. They all trudged up to the three rooms they were sharing, Chloe, Jessa, and Tori in one, Derek and Simon in another, and Aunt Lauren and Kit in the third. As soon as they entered the room, all three girls collapsed on the two beds groaning at how good it felt to be out of the car. Chloe closed her eyes, her legs hurt from being cooped up all day, her back was stiff, and her butt was numb from sitting.

Then Derek and Simon came into their room and Derek fell on the bed next to her, causing her to bounce into the air, laughing. She rested her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. They had both long gotten past their fear of PDA and no longer cared what other people thought of them, mainly Aunt Lauren. But they didn't have to worry about Chloe's aunt at the moment, because the only other people in the room were Tori, Simon, and Jessa.

Derek kissed her forehead, and she closed her eyes, so tired even though she didn't do anything that day other than sit. She turned, scooting closer, and put her chin on his chest and stared. Derek's dark green eyes looked back at her, and he cocked an eyebrow. "What?"

"You have have pretty eyes." She murmured. Derek laughed, ignoring the blush spreading across his face, causing her head to bounce, which made her laugh.

"You must be tired," Derek said, pulling at her hair again, displaying his happy mood yet again. They rarely traded compliments back and forth, mainly because it caused both of them to become extremely embarrassed, so Chloe saying Derek's eyes were pretty was an oddity, but she felt like saying what was on her mind.

She leaned forward and kissed his lips gently and he kissed her back. A quick peck soon turned into a full out kiss as Derek shifted her on top on him and wrapped both arms around her waist, squeezing her the way she liked. He ran his tongue over her bottom lip and a shiver spread throughout her body. But before things could go any farther Tori cleared her throat loudly shouting, "Good God! Stop with the porn! I just had supper!"

Both of them jumped and Derek groaned loudly, shooting Tori a glare. The witch grinned sweetly then turned back to the TV she had turned on. Chloe stayed on top of Derek, lying her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck, sighing contently.

"Ease up, Tori." Jessa told her, "It's not like they were doing anything wrong."

"They were flaunting their relationship in front of my face." Tori said, "Have you guys noticed that I'm the only one who doesn't have anybody?"

"Tori, you'll find someone," Jessa said, she was propped up against the headboard, Simon's arm around her shoulders, "But until you do, you should learn to stop complaining, it's not very attractive, sweety."

"Yeah," Chloe said, looking over at her, "As soon as this 'on the run' stuff ends, you'll have boys drooling all over you like they were before the Lyle House."

"You'll be back to breaking hearts in no time." Jessa smiled at Chloe, thanking her for helping her to cheer up Tori. Tori refused to say anything or to look at them, and both girls knew that they had said the right thing and that Tori was probably trying not to seem affected by their words.

"Well," Jessa said, stretching out her arms and moving away from Simon, "I'm going to take a shower."

She rolled out of the bed, and walked over to the bathroom that had remained closed the entire time, the girls were too tired to check it out when they first entered. Jessa opened the door, "Where's the light switch at?" Chloe heard her say, even though they wouldn't have a clue. Then Chloe heard Jessa say, "Found it! Why do they put it outside the bathroom, that doesn't make any sense. What if-" Jessa's chatter was cut off by an earsplitting shriek that was so full of fear that it rattled Chloe's bones and caused her heart to drop with dread.

**Okay, okay, okay, I know, I know, I made it a cliffy and you all hate me at the moment for doing such a horrid thing. *smiles evilly* But I like it. And if I didn't make it a cliffy it would have been forever long.**

** And I know that some of you are mad at me for making Chloe all jealous of Jessa, but if you think about it, I think Chloe has some pretty good reasons to be jealous, and if I'm doing a fanfic mostly in Chloe's point of view I'm going to add the jealousy. But don't worry, this isn't going to be filled with teenage drama and Jessa isn't trying to steal Derek. JESSA LOVES SIMON AND DEREK IS JUST A REALLY GOOD FRIEND AND THAT WILL NEVER CHANGE NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU PAY ME, I'M SORRY!**

**Now that we have discussed that little point of interest I want to point out that this chapter was slow and kind of pointless and Chloe sounds kind of stupid in this, and it doesn't go very deep into her feelings, but I'm trying to get into her character and the first chapters are always the worst because you're not into the plot yet and you're introducing everything and everyone so that makes it slow. I promise that the next one will be better, or at least I think it will be better. *it's better***

**Also, one more thing, I started typing up this story quite literally the moment after I posted the last chapter to A Werewolf In The Making so I have a few chapters already typed up (up to chapter 3, working on 4 at the moment) and I'm going to try and post one every week until I run out of pre-written chapters, and when I do we will be back to posting them whenever I finish them :)**

**So, review. Please, please, please review. Ever since I finished my last story I have had a serious lack of reviews and it's killing me (by the way, thanks to everyone who reviewed!****_ I love you_****_!_) so help me recover from my review shortage, before I go into a comatose state and you never figure out why Jessa screamed. (that's right I'm blackmailing you, and since it's illegal it just proves that I really need reviews.)**

**Thanks for reading this forever long author's note, I tend to babble when excited.**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	2. Chapter 2

**AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Guess who is finally 15! ME! I am so excited it is not even funny! I was 14 while everyone else in my grade was 15 and some are even turning 16 but now I'm caught up with them (sort of... until they all turn 16 *sad sigh*) And for my b-day I went to The Smart Chicks tour and got to see Kelley Armstrong in person! It was so cool! And I got a little Derek buttom (It's so cute!).**

**Now, getting back to normal. I know this wasn't supposed to be posted until tomorrow, but tomorrow is going to be hectic for me, so I'm posting it a day early. I'm sure you won't care. I would also like to thank everyone who reviewed, I love you all. I'm so happy to see that some of you followed me over from A Werewolf In The Making  and I'm glad that you liked the first chapter. And I'm happy to see people who I have never seen before reviewing for my story, I love you too. Thank you so much everyone, you're the reason I love writing. And without further ado I present to you Chapter 2.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers, but maybe someday Kelley will give it to me... A girl can dream.**

**Warning: Kind of long chapter, with an itty-bitty-bit of gore, just a little bit, no worries.**

Chapter 2: Broken

Chloe jumped off the bed and ran for Jessa, followed by Derek, Simon, and Tori. Jessa was standing in the little bit off hall space between the door to their room and the main room where the beds were, shrieking her head off while gazing into the bathroom with a look of complete horror on her face. Chloe glanced into the bathroom without thinking, and as soon as she saw what was inside a scream of fear burst through her mouth.

Then it was as if Time stopped making sense, like Chloe was having an out of body experience and everything seemed to move too fast and too slow at the same time. She was screaming and looking into the bathroom for the longest time, but at the same time it felt like it was just seconds. Then Derek was yanking her away from the door that led to the bathroom and she was no longer looking at the horror within.

And then as if out of nowhere she was suddenly being cradled by Derek on one of the beds, curled up in his arms like an infant as he rocked her back and forth gently, his huge strong body protecting her. And she was crying because she could still see it, could still see the bathroom inside her head and it didn't want to leave and she knew it wasn't going to leave and that she would have to live with that image in her head for the rest of her life. She cried because the image scared her like nothing had ever scared her before. She closed her eyes, burying her head into Derek's chest, trying to block out the image, but it wouldn't leave.

Blood... so much blood, dripping down the walls, filling the sink and the tub, covering the floor. The eyes... all of them staring at her, all of them glassy and lifeless. And the bodies... The bodies of kids, no older than toddlers, littering the floor, propped against the walls, no longer living...

Chloe sobbed and scrunched up her eyes, trying not to think about it, but the harder she tried the more she thought about it.

"It's okay, Chloe, it's okay." Derek was rubbing her back, holding her to him tightly, whispering nonsense to her, trying to calm her down, "It's okay, it's okay, everything's going to be alright, it'll be alright." _No, it won't,_ she thought, _no it won't. They're already dead. They're gone and they lost their lives before they even started. It's not alright. It's not, it's not, it's not..._

But she let Derek comfort her even though he was wrong because she needed him and he made her feel better.

Once most of the tears were gone, Chloe peeked her head out from Derek and saw Simon holding Jessa the same way as Derek was holding her. Jessa wasn't crying, but Chloe saw the wetness on her cheeks and knew that she had been. Jessa was pale and shivering, and only then did Chloe notice that she was shivering too, and the cold hit her hard, making her feel like a leaf in the breeze. Derek circled a blanket around her tiny body and held her close to him, rubbing her, trying to make her warm.

"How are they?" Kit's voice penetrated the heavy silence in the room. Chloe jumped when she heard his voice, and Derek tightened his arms around her even more. She turned her head to find a very concerned Aunt Lauren and Kit standing in their room. When did they get there? How did Chloe not notice their presence?

"Are you feeling better?" Derek was looking into her eyes, searching for something she didn't know of. Chloe didn't answer, because she didn't know, or care. How could you care about something so trivial as your feelings when mere babies had been murdered?

Her face must have said something about the horror that was still playing inside of her, because Derek just gently pressed her face against his chest again and he continued to rub her back soothingly.

"Chloe? Jessa?" It was Kit again, "Can you tell us what you saw?"

Chloe knew that what she and Jessa had saw was a residual, a scene that was forever imprinted in that room because it was so awful. She knew that only her and Jessa saw it because they were necromancers (part necromancer in Jessa's case) and that only they could see the horror that laid just through the wall of the very motel room they were staying in. Such a normal room, so ordinary and bland, it gave no hint to the fact that it held a dark secret. But the others couldn't see what they did, all they knew that whatever it was was horrible.

Chloe moved her head so she could see Jessa. Jessa was looking back at her, her bright green eyes looking haunted, her face pale, so much paler than it usually was, sickly pale; it scared Chloe to see her like that. And yet somehow, Chloe knew she was wearing the exact same expression. But she kept her eyes on Jessa, not wanting to look at anyone else when she answered Kit, because she didn't want to see their reactions.

"There was blood... everywhere..." The image flashed in her mind's eye again and she started shaking again. Jessa's face turned green, and Simon dove for the trash bin sitting beside the bed and held Jessa's hair back from her face as she got sick in it.

The room was quiet as they all listened to Jessa gagging and retching. Chloe's own stomach became uneasy, and she began to wonder if maybe she would need a trash bin, but she managed to control the queasy feeling, all she had to do was think of it as if it were a movie. How many times had she watched gore filled films and laughed about it? Now that the gore was real (or at least real to her) she suddenly no longer found such a thing funny. But she continued to pretend that it was all fake, and started to think about how she and her set managers would go around creating such a scene: what props would she use, how would they place the blood, who to use as the children... not real, not real, not real...

"They were just kids." Jessa lifted her head up from the bin, and stared at nothing with far away eyes, "Just babies, no more than toddlers. So many of them... and they were looking at me... But they were already gone..." She shuddered and started to cry again. Simon - pale, now that he realized what they had seen- wrapped his arms around her and started to stroked her hair gently.

Derek looked down at Chloe with worried eyes, and she didn't know why. What did he think she was going to do? Go and cut herself or something? She was fine. Scarred, freaked out, scared, horrified, but fine. She was a necromancer, she would be dealing with this her whole life, she had to be fine, she had to be able to brush something like this off like it was nothing and move on because if she didn't she would break and once you're broken there's no putting you back together.

And as soon as she thought that she knew that was what Derek was worried about. She knew that he was thinking the same thing that she was: that she would be seeing this the rest of her life. She would be seeing things no one was ever meant to see, things so horrible that the universe itself couldn't heal the wounds they created. He was worried that she would break, that she would go mad from her 'gift' and after what she saw, she wasn't sure if she could hold off the madness if horrors were always going to be waiting for her in the most unsuspecting places, like a bathroom in a motel. Maybe she _would_ lose her mind, maybe one day she would see something that would push her over the edge and she would be gone forever... broken forever...

She shivered at the thought. No, that wasn't going to happen. She couldn't do that to Derek, she couldn't go mad and leave him to deal with a person that was the ghost of herself, she just couldn't.

She shifted herself in Derek's lap, turning sideways and tucking her head underneath his chin. Derek kissed her head and kept his arms around her. Chloe looked at the rest of her group. Tori was standing in silent horror, Simon was comforting Jessa, Jessa had stopped crying and was calming down again, and Aunt Lauren and Kit were looking at each other in shock, both of them wanting the other to decide what to do now.

"We should all go to bed." Chloe said, deciding to be strong and take action, brushing the whole thing off.

_...Not real, not real, not real..._

Everyone but Jessa looked at her in surprise. Aunt Lauren said in a concerned voice, "Chloe, are you sure? Wouldn't it be better if we switched motels-"

"No." Chloe cut her off, "I've had enough of driving for one day, we can still stay here."

"But what if you want to use the bathroom?" Tori asked, eyeing the door to the dreaded thing like it was a squished spider.

"We can switch rooms with someone." Jessa said quietly. Chloe looked at her friend and was glad to see that the haunted look in her eyes was fading as she came back to reality. Jessa looked back at her, and smiled weakly and Chloe knew that she was trying to be strong, trying to get over what she had seen, trying to be the protector again, not the protected.

"They can have our room." Simon said quickly, and Derek agreed just as quick. And just like that the problem was solved.

Chloe unfolded herself from Derek and slid off the bed and onto her feet. Jessa did the same with Simon, and once both girls were free from their boyfriends, they hugged.

A lot was said in that hug. It said that it was all going to be okay, that neither of them were alone, that the other would always have their back, that no matter what happened they had to stick together and make sure the other didn't break, because inside each girl knew that if she let the other break, then she would break as well.

In that hug Chloe forgot all the jealousy she felt for Jessa, forgot all the things Jessa could bring out of Derek that she herself couldn't, forgot all of her beauty, and for the first time in a long time, all she thought about was the girl that was her friend and whom she loved like a sister and Chloe made a silent promise to always protect her, no matter what happened.

Chloe knew Jessa would never steal Derek away from her, she knew that, and any thought she put towards that idea was a waste of time and stress and just made her an idiot. Jessa was her friend, a good friend, having almost given up her life a few months ago to protect her, and it was time that Chloe started to be a good friend back.

The girls stepped away from each other and collected the few items they brought into the motel with them. Then without a backwards glance, they both walked past the bathroom door and out of the room.

* * *

Chloe turned over on the bed she was sharing with Tori, trying to find a more comfortable position, but in reality she knew that even if she found the most comfortable position in the world she still wouldn't be able to sleep.

Most of that had to do with the fact that no matter how tough she tried to be, no matter how indifferent she tired to act, she still couldn't get the bathroom horror out of her mind. It was forever burned into her brain. When they had switched rooms with the guys, Chloe noticed right away that the rooms looked exactly the same, like most rooms at motels did. And so she had tried to prepare herself when she walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth, but seeing the little room that looked just like the one from before freaked her out and the details came crashing back to her. She had ran out of the bathroom quickly, and ended up having to brush her teeth with her eyes closed, and even then her body was crawling with chills, but she had to be strong.

Another reason why she couldn't sleep had to do with the fact that this was the first night in about four months that Chloe had gone to sleep without Derek right by her side. After Jessa had been attacked Jessa had been plagued with nightmares, and so she had asked Derek if he could switch bedrooms with her at night so she could sleep with Simon. Derek of course consulted Chloe before agreeing, and when he told Jessa he didn't care, Chloe was given the gift of falling asleep with Derek's arms around her every night.

Nobody but Tori knew about this arrangement, which meant that they had kept it a secret from Kit and Aunt Lauren because everyone knew they wouldn't approve. And they kept it hidden by having both Jessa and Derek wake up early each morning and sneak back into their assigned rooms, that way none of the adults ever walked in one morning and found one of the couples sleeping together.

Chloe had known all day that this was coming, that she would have to spend the night without Derek with her, and she had accepted that. But then the bathroom fiasco happened and now she wasn't even sure if she could sleep, and if she did, she knew she would have nightmares. At least she didn't have to worry about raising the kids in her sleep. The killer would have had to have been caught and the bodies of the kids buried in some cemetery far away from her...

But then she remembered the small meadow behind the hotel. What if the killer wasn't caught, what if he had taken the broken bodies of the kids and buried them in the meadow behind the motel and cleaned the room and no one ever knew what had happen? What if she had a nightmare about the kids and she accidently raised them? How would she know before someone found the zombies? She wouldn't know and that was the problem.

Now she really couldn't sleep. If she dreamed about the kids she could wake them, and she didn't want to do that to the poor things, not after their brutal murders.

Chloe sat up in her bed, refusing to allow herself to sleep.

"Are you okay?" Jessa's voice floated over to her from the other bed in the room. Chloe just barely held in her shriek of panic, somehow thinking that her friend was a zombie, and turned her head to see a flash of Jessa's green eyes in the dark. "Chloe?"

"I'm fine, you scared me." She laid a hand over her heart, feeing as it pounded frantically in her chest.

She glanced at Jessa, and realized that her friend was just as awake as she was, the only one who was asleep was Tori. Chloe realized that Jessa was going through the same thing that she was. Jessa was haunted by the same thing she was and she was missing Simon from her bed, both of which was probably bothering her as much as it was bothering Chloe. The only thing that differed between them was that Jessa didn't have to worry about raising the dead in her sleep since her necromancer powers were at a normal level and not totally out of control.

"Can't sleep?" Chloe asked, smiling ruefully.

"No." Jessa sighed, "I miss Simon."

"I miss Derek." Both girls spent a silent moment between them missing their boys.

"Well how come we can't go get them?" Jessa asked suddenly, "I mean, if it would help us sleep."

Chloe frowned, "What about Tori?"

Jessa was already getting out of bed, shivering as the air pierced her tank top and basketball shorts, "We can move her, she wouldn't care, in fact she'll thank us if we tell her we made out with them and stuff, she hates that." And then Jessa was heading out of their room and across the hall to the guy's room.

In less than a minute Derek was in the room, and Chloe's thoughts took on a happier tone. He smiled at her, but moved to Tori and picked her up in his arms and left to go put her in the guy's room. Simon and Jessa entered after Derek left, both of them talking quietly, Chloe unable to make out the words. Then Derek was back in the room and was getting under the covers beside her.

They had long gotten past the point of awkwardness when it came to sharing a bed, and they had it down to a routine. She snuggled up against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her.

"I couldn't sleep." She murmured, as a way of apology.

"It's okay, I couldn't sleep either." Chloe hid a smile at his words, happy that he couldn't sleep without her. "So what's wrong?"

And Chloe told him quietly how she kept seeing the bathroom and how she was worried that maybe the killer hadn't been caught and that the kid's could be buried outside the hotel or something. Derek listened the whole time, his face serious.

"You don't have to worry about raising them, Chloe." Derek murmured, staring at the wall as he thought how to phrase what he was going to say, "After what happened I was curious about it so I took the laptop and researched the motel." Derek looked at her, his eyes studying her, trying to see what she thought of him prying into what scared her so much, "It happened ten years ago, Chloe, the guy who did it was caught and sentenced for life, the bodies were returned to the parents. They aren't buried behind the building, you don't have to worry about raising them." She breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't surprise her that Derek researched it, he was always curious and was always hunting for more info, she would've been more surprised if he didn't.

"You can sleep now, Chloe." He said bluntly. And there was Derek wondering why she wasn't sleeping, even after he had been brought over from his room to be with her. Those kind of remarks used to bug her until she understood that Derek thought conventionally: if you're tired, you sleep; if you're hungry, you eat. Now that he knew that her fears were set to rest, she could sleep and he was confused as to why she was still awake, even if he wasn't admitting it.

"Be quiet, I'm thinking." She whispered, and really she was, she was marveling at the fact that she had still managed to find a way to sleep with Derek after thinking all day that she wouldn't be able to. It filled her with a mischievous glee, made her feel kind of like a secret agent or something else that was cheesy but every kid wants to be at some point in life, like a ninja.

Derek watched her think for a while, and she could tell that he tried, he really tried, but in the end he couldn't help it, his natural curiosity getting the better of him, "What are you thinking about?" he asked.

She, of course, wasn't going to tell him about how she felt like a ninja, that was embarrassing, so she spoke the first thing that came to her mind, "I'm trying to figure out how Jessa can sleep with Simon snoring in her ear like that." And they both spent a moment listening to Simon snore rather loudly from the other bed.

Derek smiled at her, "Werewolves get used to hearing lots of things when they sleep, you just sort of learn to block it all out, reacting only to the uncommon noises, like a creaking floorboard or an opening door."

She frowned at him, "You do that when you sleep?"

"It's easy, I don't even have to think about it anymore, it's just instinctive now. I react to possible threats not my brother's snoring, simple really." Derek smiled again at her face.

"Yeah, real simple." Chloe shook her head.

"You need to sleep." Derek murmured seriously.

With a sigh Chloe realized that not only did she need to sleep, but so did Derek. After the whole bathroom scene and him being helpless to help her, let alone see what she was seeing, his nerves were frayed and he was worried about her again. She knew that he wouldn't fall asleep until she did, so she had better hurry up and sleep so he could get some rest.

She scooted closer to him, laying her head on his chest, feeling how warm it was, thinking about how warm it was, imagining the warm traveling from Derek to her, how that warmth would spread throughout her body, making her whole being warm. And soon her eyes were getting heavy and her breathing was slowing and her mind was entering that limbo of consciousness and unconsciousness.

And in minutes she was asleep and dreaming of giant packing-peanut mountains that she was sledding down, and not once did the dead kid's enter her mind.

**Okay people, that promise Chloe makes when she hugs Jessa is VERY IMPORTANT for later chapters (*cough cough* _foreshadowing _*cough*). And I feel like I'm hitting Chloe's character better in this chapter, like I'm getting used to writing in her point of view. Let me know if Chloe and/or Derek seem OOC because if they do, let me know how to fix it, because I can't handle fanfics with OOC characters, it bugs me like nothing else does.**

**Please review, I want to know what you think of my new story so far! We're not into the plot yet, I'm still trying to find a way to work up to it, but I promise it's going to be good.**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, sorry I'm a day late, I've been busy, busy, busy! And I have to admit, I'm a tad bit disappointed. A whole week and only 3 reviews? That makes me depressed and not one bit eager to update again. But I will grudgingly accept it and move on and post chapter 3. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Kelley Armstrong, so I don't own the Darkest Powers series. End of story. **

Chapter 3: Perfect

When Chloe woke up the next morning Derek had already left. It saddened her that she didn't get to see him before he had to go, but that was how it always was. Sometimes she woke up when he left and he would kiss her on lips or forehead, tell her good morning, then order her back to sleep, orders which she would normally obeyed almost instantly. But other times she would sleep right through his departure and wake up with his place in bed beside her cold. It always saddened her when this happened, Derek was never selfish enough to wake her when he left, and when she woke up alone, she could still feel the ghost of his presence there beside her, but it was a sad thing because it was where he had been and wasn't anymore.

But her sadness never lasted long because she would see him when she left her room. He would either be in the kitchen or on the way to the bathroom, or just walking around the house without a purpose, but she would always see him. _But not today, _she thought glumly, _because we're in a motel, not a house. _

With a sigh she heaved herself out of bed - trying not to wake Tori who had taken up Derek's space in the bed - and stood, stretching out her arms and back, her toes digging into the carpeted floor. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand, it read 6:36.

"Jessa." Chloe knew the werewolf would wake up at her voice.

Jessa groaned and shoved her head under a pillow.

"Jessa, when are we supposed to leave?" Chloe asked, assuming the werewolf would know, or at least hoping she would.

"Who cares." Jessa's voice was muffled and groggy, "Go back to sleep, Chloe." And Chloe watched as the werewolf's breathing slowed and she fell asleep in a time span of 5 seconds, something that Chloe could never accomplish, now matter how tired she was.

Chloe sighed again and walked to the bathroom. The curtains on the windows were drawn, which meant that the room was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing. She stubbed her toe on the leg of Jessa's bed, making an extremely loud _thunk! _sound. Chloe heard Jessa growl, having accidently woken her up again.

"Sorry." She whispered, but Chloe wasn't sure if Jessa heard before falling back to sleep.

She was preparing herself to walk into the bathroom, her mind sending her flashes of the murder scene from the night before while she told herself that it was just a bathroom and she wouldn't see a thing, when there was a loud knock on the door to their room.

"For the love of Christ!" Chloe heard Jessa exclaim, "Can't a girl sleep for five minutes without being woken up?" Jessa got out of her bed and marched over to the door that Chloe was unlocking, "Back up, let make sure it's not a kidnapper or something." Jessa grumbled irritably, waving Chloe out of the way.

Chloe stepped away and Jessa flung the door open and Derek stood there waiting for them. He smiled at Chloe and was about to say something when Jessa snapped, "This had better be good."

Derek looked a tad bit startled, but then said, "We're leaving in a half hour, make sure you're ready."

"Okay. Bye." Jessa slammed the door and stalked off back to her bed, "Chloe, wake me when you and Tori are ready to go." And then she was back to sleep.

Thankfully Derek didn't knock again, because Chloe was sure that would've sent Jessa on a rampage. Instead, she opened the door and slipped out into the hallway, making sure she left it open just a tiny bit so she could get back inside. Poor Derek looked like he was in a state of shock, and Chloe laughed and put a hand on his arm, "It's okay, she's just not an early morning person."

Derek eyed the door, "You don't say?" He shook his head and smiled at her. Chloe loved his smile, mostly because he didn't smile that often. But when he did smile, when it was a genuine smile, it brightened his whole face. It was such a huge contrast to his normal serious and calculating demeanor, it made her feel good when his eyes brightened with laughter, when his skin seemed to glow with joy. And it made her feel even better when it was directed towards her because it meant that she was the cause of his happiness, that she was the reason his world wasn't cold and serious. It just made her feel good.

He grabbed her in a hug and kissed her forehead, "How did you sleep?"

Chloe closed her eyes, drowning comfortably in Derek's presence, "Fine, better than I thought I would anyway." Derek tilted her head up and kissed her eyelids, her cheeks, gently with his lips, she could feel the happiness radiating off of him.

"That's good," He said moving his lips down to her throat, feeling his warm breath on her skin, causing her eyes to flutter without her consent.

"Mmm-Hmm..." Chloe agreed, trying her best not to faint from pure bliss as his lips traveled up her neck.

And then they both abandoned all pretense of having a conversation as Derek kissed her full on the lips. Chloe was lost in a blissful bubble full of happy rays of sunshine and music as Derek kissed her. It seemed like both forever and just a few seconds before he broke his lips away from hers and he looked at her, his eyes bright, his lips wet, and she blushed, unable to believe that she had just been making out with him in a public place, even if was a motel hallway.

"You should go get ready." he murmured, nudging her towards the door to her room.

"Nope, I'm good." She tightened her hold around his neck, her arms having somehow gotten up there at some point, and she balanced on her tip-toes to keep them wrapped around his neck as Derek straightened up to his full height.

"I'll see you soon." He kissed her one more time on the lips before dropping his arms from around her and breaking free of her grasp with almost no effort. Darn werewolves and their super strength.

Once Derek had disappeared back into his room Chloe turned and went back into her own room, sighing sadly, but smiling all the same, happy with her wake-up call.

The next half hour was a blend of yelling at Tori to wake up, hurrying to get dressed and presentable, and trying to keep quiet so Jessa could sleep, which was really hard to accomplish. But when their half hour was up the three girls were all walking out of the motel and towards the car, bleary-eyed, impatient, and tired, but there nonetheless.

Once everyone was loaded up in the car they all promptly fell back to sleep.

* * *

Chloe had her head pressed against Derek's chest, his arm around her shoulders. She was so unbelievably bored. She was really starting to get tired of all of this driving, whether it was to keep them safe or not, she no longer cared. She had tried sleeping, that tended to pass the time, but once they stopped to eat lunch, she was unable to sleep anymore. She had spent some time talking to the others, but then Jessa and Simon secluded themselves by listening to Tori's i-pod and Tori decided to take another nap. Her and Derek had talked for a while, but then he became preoccupied with watching everything they passed outside the widow, probably memorizing the roads they took if they ever needed to retrace their steps or something.

So now Chloe was stuck to her own thoughts as the minutes ticked by. She preoccupied herself by mentally composing a letter to the President explaining why Kentucky should be moved closer to New York.

* * *

Mountains. Chloe was never the star in her Geography class, but she was pretty sure that there were no mountains in Kentucky. But of course she was proved wrong as soon as they crossed the Virginia-Kentucky border.

When she mentioned this out loud, Kit answered her by saying that only Eastern Kentucky had them, that the further west they traveled the less mountainous the land would become.

The scenery fascinated Chloe, and she shifted in her seat so she could watch it all pass by. The roads snaked through the mountains that towered above them covered in green vegetation, and Chloe could imagine what kind of movie she could film here, maybe something set in the 40's the plot revolving around the poverty then. Hmmm...

Then the mountains slowly transformed into hills the farther they traveled. Chloe never knew land could be so hilly. Looking out the window she could see hill upon hill upon hill, one rising up behind the other, fading into the distance until the land converged with the sky. She composed a list of all the different movies she could film here, what kind of shots she could take to show the scenery and how she would take them.

Then they entered Lexington, the race horse mecca of the US, and things became more interesting. By then Tori was awake and Jessa had tired of listening to music, so all three girls entertained themselves by looking out at the horses as they passed. Lexington made Chloe feel like a little kid again, on the sides of the roads were pastures upon pastures of horses, and you had to look quickly out one window the turn to the window on the other side for fear that you might miss something. So the girls contented themselves with gazing out the window, shouting whenever they saw a horse so the other two could see it too. And it was springtime so they saw multiple foals prancing around their mothers, all tiny and cute.

But once they were out of Lexington things became boring again.

"We're almost there." Kit kept saying over and over again, which became real old after the first half hour, and even worse after the second one. But to Kit's credit, they did hit the afternoon traffic, so things went a bit slower, which was just what everyone wanted.

Tori had been complaining from the beginning, of course, that was just Tori. Chloe could tell that both Derek and Jessa were getting restless, they were shifting in their seats and having trouble focusing on anything; maybe it was a werewolf thing, maybe they had been in a confined space for too long and needed to get out and get blood running through their limbs again. But whatever the reason for their restlessness, neither of them said anything, always the polite werewolves, more concerned about others than themselves, and at this moment both of them wanted to get to the next safe house as soon as possible.

* * *

It was late when they finally arrived, the sun had set and the moon lit the sky, and everyone was tired from sitting in the car all day long.

Chloe stumbled out of the car, her legs numb and her body didn't feel connected with her thoughts. She would have fallen had Derek not caught her, saving her from a face full of gravel.

"Thanks." She mumbled, then yawned right afterwards, closing her eyes as tears appeared.

"Come on." Derek wrapped an arm around her, supporting her weight, keeping her from falling as the walked up the gravel drive-way to their new home.

The house was quite literally in the middle of a forest, a long gravel drive-way that looked ancient leading up to it. No other houses were in view and Chloe doubted that there were any for miles around. The house itself was a two-story brick house that looked at least a hundred years old, and Chloe wondered if she would be seeing any ghosts in there. She shivered at the thought.

Derek rubbed his hand against her arm, to warm her, without even looking down at her. His head was turning back and forth, his nostrils flared, his eyes searching the forest that was just beyond the yard, surrounding the house in every direction. Chloe knew he was on the look out for anything unusual and more importantly _anyone _unusual.

Glancing behind her, Chloe saw that Jessa was wide awake and doing the exact same thing as Derek.

"I'll circle the house quick," Jessa murmured, turning her head to hear a sound somewhere far off in the distance, "Don't let anyone separate." Derek nodded and Chloe watched as Jessa took off in a silent jog and disappeared around a corner of the house.

With Jessa and Derek acting so cautious, Chloe suddenly found herself fearing what she couldn't see. Had someone managed to follow them? Were they waiting for them in the trees around the house? What if someone really was out there? Was Jessa going to be okay? Derek stopped walking, his head cocked, listening to something. They were still a few yards from the front door, and Derek held out an arm, signaling them all to stop. He frowned, he was definitely listening to something.

"Try going into the forest and checking for a scent trail, anything recent." Chloe heard Derek say. She sent him a questioning look, not sure if she should talk or not. "Jessa says there's something wrong." he answered her, not whispering and his stance relaxing, telling everyone everything was okay, there was no one out there, nothing to fear.

Then Derek rolled his eyes, "Jessa says that _something_ isn't wrong, it just feels wrong to her, and that the most recent scent trails are from a family of rabbits, a deer, and a groundhog, so we have nothing to worry about."

Chloe nodded, and relaxed a bit, happy to know that their safe house was still safe, glad that she would soon be in bed and asleep with Derek beside her.

Chloe didn't hear Jessa, but she saw her shadowed figure as the werewolf slowly jogged her way out of the forest beside the house. She stopped next to Simon and took his hand, Simon kissing her forehead gently.

"Nothing?" Simon asked, looking down at her.

"Nothing." Jessa replied, resting her head on his shoulder, "But something still feels weird. I don't smell anything, and I don't hear anything, and nothing seems unusual, but something still makes me uneasy."

"Uneasy how?" Kit asked, frowning thoughtfully.

Jessa shrugged and made a face, "Just sort of a 'don't go there' feeling. It's toward the toolshed in the backyard, on the very edge of the forest, and it gets worse the farther into the trees you go. I can't explain it."

"I'll go check." Derek said, and he removed his arm from around Chloe. She gripped his hand, causing him to stop.

"Be careful." She whispered quietly, so only he could hear her. He gave her a warm smile, a smile that made her stomach flip, and bent and kissed her lips softly.

"I will." he whispered, before backing away and silently running around the corner of the house and out of sight.

"Oh, come on!" Tori groaned, "You stupid werewolves take forever! I want to go inside and sleep!"

"Shut up, Tori." Chloe, Simon, and Jessa said in unison, which caused Tori to huff and puff and cross her arms dramatically, but she stayed silent.

Chloe rang her hands nervously, shivering in the night air, suddenly cold without Derek's arm around her, his body against hers. She waited anxiously for him to return, knowing he wasn't really gone for as long as it felt, but she was worried. Werewolves had strong instincts, in them lived the animals that humans had long thought inferior, but that animal inside them had base instincts. That animal knew when to fight, when to run, and when something was wrong. If Jessa sensed something was wrong, then odds were something _was_ wrong. And the thought of Derek walking into trouble worried Chloe.

She remembered how she felt just months earlier, watching as Derek ran after the three werewolves that had cornered them in the forest after Jessa's first transformation into a wolf. She remembered how worried she had been, knowing that somewhere past her range of perception, Derek was fighting and getting hurt. She remembered how Derek returned, bearing new cuts and bruises, saying Jessa was hurt. And then how Jessa spent hours fighting for her life afterwards, her life blood seeping out of her, how devastated Simon had been.

She remembered how she had almost lost her best friend, how Jessa had almost died, and now all she could do was think if Jessa's and Derek's roles had been reversed.

What if Derek had been the one who had been seriously injured? What would she had done? Chloe wasn't sure. Even just the thought of Derek dying right before her eyes made her want to break and fall to pieces. If Derek died what would she do? What could she do?

She loved him. She loved him with all her heart, and even though they fought (it _was _Derek, of course they fought) and even though they shouted and argued, in the end she still loved him. She didn't want a boy she could just wrap around her finger and order to do whatever she decreed; because that meant that he would no longer be the boy she fell in love with, he would just be her puppet.

What she wanted was Derek. She wanted to know his point of view and what he thought. She wanted him to be himself, however annoying it was at times; she wanted him to be the boy she fell in love with in the first place. She wanted him to listen her ideas, her thoughts, and her fears, wanted to hear his opinions on what ran through her head. She wanted him to question her actions and plans, causing herself to notice the flaws in them that had before remained hidden to her. She wanted him to be Derek and only Derek, because that was all he ever could be and that was all she ever wanted him to be, and that was why she loved him.

And so Chloe shivered in the night air, the moonlight casting weird shadows on everything, making their new house look slightly scary. She waited for Derek to return, but minutes ticked by and she became more and more worried as her thoughts of losing him redoubled inside of her head. What if Jessa was wrong and there were enemies out there, lurking in the forest, waiting to pounce when he was busy looking for the source of Jessa's 'bad feeling'?

She glanced at Jessa, her friend looking pale and beautiful in the moonlight. Jessa was gazing out past the tree line, an unreadable expression on her face as she searched the forest. She didn't look worried, Chloe concluded, but then again werewolves were good at disguising their feelings when need be. But if Derek were in trouble Jessa wouldn't be standing there, and Jessa would be able to hear if something happened to him, right?

As if she felt Chloe's eyes on her, Jessa looked away from the trees and glanced at Chloe, who was watching her worriedly. Jessa instantly guessed what was going through Chloe's head and smiled, "It's okay, Chloe, he's fine. He's just making a wider circle of the perimeter, making sure everything is alright. He should be coming back soon."

And in less than a minute Derek was jogging out of the forest and back to her. He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her close to his chest, rubbing his hands up and down her arms, trying to stop her from shivering.

"Did you find anything?" Kit asked, as Chloe closed her eyes, laying her head against Derek's chest as warmth seeped back into her.

"No." Derek replied, running his fingers over Chloe's face, "I didn't feel what you felt Jessa, and I went farther out than you did, but I didn't pick anything up that felt unusual."

Jessa frowned and gazed out into the forest, her eyes searching for something that wasn't there.

"Maybe you're just tired and your sense are muddled. It is pretty late, and you woke up early this morning." Simon said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe..." Jessa's voice said she didn't think so, her eyes still glued on the forest.

"Well, I'm about to pass out form exhaustion." Tori said, "Can I go inside now?"

And after both Derek and Jessa quickly searched the house everyone was aloud to go inside. Jessa and Chloe shared a room again, and so did Simon and Derek. Aunt Lauren, Kit, and Tori all had their own rooms. Chloe quickly dressed in her nightclothes and brushed her teeth, not afraid of seeing a murder scene in the bathroom after having gotten Jessa's reassurance that there were no residuals in the house having checked when she and Derek were making sure the house was empty.

When she was ready for bed, Chloe went to find Derek. He was alone in his and Simon's room, looking out the second story window and into the forest beyond.

He didn't turn when she entered, but she knew he knew she was there. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his back, absorbing the warmth of his body.

"Are you going to bed?" She asked him, which really meant, _are you going to come into my room later? _

Derek turned and drew her towards his chest, running his hands up and down her back gently, "I will, but I want to check over the house some more before I do." Chloe knew what that meant. It meant he was going to go outside and guard the house until Jessa came outside to relieve him of guard duty, taking over his job until dawn. The two werewolves always did that for the first few days in a new house. They never fully believed they were safe, not after the incident a few months ago with Jessa almost dying. They would guard the house at night for about a week before believing they were well protected and that the guard duty wasn't needed.

"Okay," Chloe said, backing away from him to head to her own room to sleep, trying not to sound disappointed.

Derek didn't let her go, but brought her up in a hug, squeezing her waist tight, pressing his lips gently to hers in a warm gentle kiss that always surprised her in contrast with his huge form. Then he set her down, looking deep into her eyes. She looked just as deeply into his, his own dark in color from the lack of light. His eyes seemed so warm and full of held back happiness that she was reminded once again how she was the one who managed to bring this big teddy-bear manner out of him, replacing his usual serious disposition. "Good night, Chloe." he murmured.

"'Night." She replied, a small smile on her lips, her heart warm and jittery. She turned and went to the door, and her bed.

She was exhuasted, but as she faded into unconsciousness she remembered her thoughts from earlier: Derek was Derek, and he was perfect and wonderful and all she ever wanted.

**Anyone else enjoy that? I thought it was pretty good. Going a bit deeper into Chloe and Derek's relationship. So... please review... if anyone is reading... I would love it... it would make my day... give me an incentive to finish writing chapter 4... which I still haven't finished... which means it will be posted whenever it is finished... which means you might have to wait more than a week for this one... Sorry...**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, hello again! I'm pleased that so many of you reviewed this time. To be honest, your reviews fueled my determination to finish this chapter, and if it weren't for them it would still probably be unfinished. Now this chapter starts weird and ends weird and didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, and that's the reason it's a few days late because I had a lot of homework and I wanted to go over it more and fix it some more before I posted it. But i've been over it multiple times and I just can't figure out how to fix it. But it's still good, just not what I wanted... I don't know. Just read. Let me know what you think.**

**Disclaimer: Once upon a time their was a little girl who was smart and still had friends unlike the normal nerd stereotypes. And this little girl wrote two fanfiction stories for the Darkest Powers. But this little girl did not own the Darkest Powers series because those stories were fanfiction. But that did not upset the little girl because people reviewed her stories and gave her the praise she needed to believe that she could write her own book one day. So that little girl wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and is still writing today, but knows that one day she will be finished and will have all her reviewers to thank for their support, whether they knew it or not. The end! Yay!**

Chapter 4: Ignorant

Derek came to visit her during the night. She never actually saw him, but when she woke that morning, Chloe knew that Derek had been there; it was just a feeling she had.

She stayed in bed a while after waking, not really wanting to get out, just observing her new room. The sunlight was filtering in from the window beside her bed, and Chloe watched the dust motes as they floated in the air around her.

Sighing deeply, she rolled onto her feet, changing out of her nightclothes.

"Good morning sunshine!" Jessa trilled as she skipped into the room, tickling Chloe's bare stomach as she passed, causing Chloe to shriek because Jessa's hands were so cold.

"Are you okay?" Chloe asked, trying to keep her poor stomach out of reach of Jessa's hyper fingers. Jessa was bouncing up and down, her eyes flitting from one thing to another, never resting for more than a second.

"Perfectly fine! Why?" Jessa asked as she hopped around their new room, examining everything with both her fingers and nose.

"You seem rather hyper." Chloe watched her uncertainly, "How much sleep did you get last night?"

Jessa had her head stuck inside the closet at the moment, and replied with, "Oh... about an hour? But I'm fine. I feel great! Have you ever had a Monster?" She asked, pulling her head out of the closet to look at Chloe, and Chloe was struck with the weird feeling of seeing a dog, just the way Jessa held her head and the way her eyes bore into hers, it just reminded her of a dog.

"Uh, no, I haven't. Why?"

"Oh!" Jessa leaped from the closet door to in front of Chloe, her face radiant, "You have to try them! They're energy drinks, you see, and they're supposed to keep you awake. Derek gave me one, I wonder where he got it?" Jessa paused, looking far away in thought. But then she shook her head and shrugged, "Annnnnnyway, he gave it to me so I could stay awake on guard duty." Jessa broke off in giggles, "Duty" she repeated and laughed like a five year old.

"Jessa." Chloe snapped her fingers in her friends face, wondering what had happened to her normally serious friend, "Focus."

"Right!" Jessa hopped again, a smile breaking out across her face, "Derek gave me a Monster, and I drank it 'cause I was sooooooo tired," Jessa put on an exaggerated tired face, "And so I drank it-and it was really good!- and after I was done I wanted another one, but I didn't know where they were and Derek was with you. So I sneaked into the car- 'cause the Monster can smelled like the car- and I found a whole bunch of 'em!" Jessa's face lit up again.

"Jessa," Chloe could already see where this was going, but she just had to ask, "How many did you drink?"

Immediately Jessa's face fell, and she looked at her feet, "Just a few..." She mumbled.

"How many?" Chloe asked firmly, feeling like she was talking to a little kid.

Jessa glanced up at her face and quickly averted her eyes. "Jessa..." Chloe's voice took on a hard note.

"Two, just two." Jessa said nervously, Chloe narrowed her eyes, "Maybe three. Possibly five. Sort of like seven."

Chloe's eyes bulged. She drank seven energy drinks! No wonder she was so hyper, those things were full of sugar! And caffeine. Was there such a thing as a caffeine overdose? Chloe hoped that if there was werewolves weren't affected by it. But good lord, Jessa should've have known better! But seeing her now, Jessa bouncing on her toes like a little kid, already forgetting that she was in trouble- Chloe suddenly realized that she was seeing the more ignorant and innocent side of Jessa, the side that her friend kept hidden, day after day, covering her soft underbelly of innocence with hard armor.

And looking into these child-like eyes, Chloe suddenly felt protective of her friend, and why shouldn't she protect Jessa? Jessa had, on many occasions, put her life in potential danger not just to protect her, but to protect everyone, their whole weird little family. But now the tables were turned and Jessa was the feeble one, the one who didn't know any better, the weak one.

"Jessa..." Chloe was going to tell her to sit down, but she was bouncing too much, and Chloe was sure that she would forget her orders in seconds and be back on her feet again. So instead Chloe finished with, "I'm going to go get Simon."

"Okay!" Jessa said excitedly, then turned back to the dresser that she was opening and examined it throughly.

Chloe walked across the hall and knocked on the boy's door, "I'm coming in." She warned, giving them a moment to get modest if they needed to before she entered.

When she walked in her eyes were assaulted with the sight of Derek shirtless. Well he wasn't exactly shirtless, he was pulling a shirt on and she only saw his chest for a spilt second before his shirt hid it. But that spilt second image played over and over again in her head. It wasn't like she hadn't seen him bare chested before, but still..., well, the sight of his muscled chest and hard stomach made her blush, no matter how many times she saw it.

She glanced at the floor, her face burning, shifting her head just the right way so her hair blocked her bright red cheeks.

"Hey Chloe!" Simon said, perky as usual.

"Hey." She said, still staring at the floor, unable to believe her cheeks were still red.

Derek came up to her, tilted her head up gently with his hand and kissed her lips lightly, "Good morning." He murmured. That of course caused her to blush even more, but Derek just smiled.

"Is everything okay?" Simon asked, probably referring to the fact that she was in their room so early in the morning (not that it was too early, but it was still odd).

"Uh, um, yeah." Chloe cleared her throat and looked at Simon, "Your girlfriend drank seven energy drinks last night and is now acting like a human bouncy ball. I can't get through to her, maybe you can?" She ended it in a question, sounding hopeful.

Simon's mouth dropped in either fear or amazement, Chloe wasn't quite sure which.

"I'll go deal with her." Simon said, walking to the door, "Is she in your guys' room?"

"Yeah." Chloe answered, and Simon nodded.

"This oughta be good..." He murmured as he left the room.

"You really shouldn't have given Jessa an energy drink." She said, looking up at Derek once Simon was gone.

"Well, I had to or else she would have fallen asleep." He answered, frowning at her.

"Well did you tell her that they are pumped full of sugar and caffeine and that she shouldn't drink more than one of them? Two tops?" Chloe asked, feeling a fight coming on but not really doing anything to stop it because she could still see in her mind how innocent Jessa seemed and she didn't like Jessa seeming innocent, she didn't like Jessa being reduced down to a child-like person. Chloe had to protect Jessa, she had to protect her friend, even if the enemy was her friend's own innocence. She wasn't even sure if that made sense.

"I thought she knew..." Derek trailed off uncertainly, backing away from her, getting the same argument vibe as she was.

"She didn't know, Derek, and that's the point!" Chloe snapped, "You have to tell her these things! She doesn't know everything!"

"I'll tell her next time, but I still don't see the problem." Derek said calmly, doing his best to avoid a fight.

Chloe sighed, trying to think up a way to explain her thoughts without actually getting into an argument with him. "She's different than us." She said slowly, frowning as words came to her, "She lacks some of the most common knowledge, like what energy drinks are. She grew up in a lab until she was 13, Derek, and lived on the streets until we found her, staying away from people as much as possible." She looked at Derek, trying to get him to understand what she was talking about, to get him to comprehend what she was feeling, "She doesn't know what we know, things we learned while growing up, simple things our parents taught us or lessons we learned from our mistakes, she never learned them. She may act big and strong, and she is, but deep down she's ignorant and she tries to hide that."

Chloe could see understanding filling Derek's eyes as he started to see what she was saying. And in the back of her mind, Chloe wondered why it took her so long for her to understand this herself. How long had she known Jessa? Six months? More than that? She wasn't sure, but it amazed her that she was only now starting to see the true ignorance in Jessa, and she felt the need to protect her friend, to shelter her, to help her understand the world around her.

Jessa was what they could've been. If Chloe had been raised in a lab, she would've turned out like Jessa, but she was lucky and had been saved. Jessa was what Derek could've been, what he would be, if Kit hadn't rescued him. In Jessa, Chloe suddenly saw what they all could have been, but never were, because someone who loved them had saved them from that life. But no one had saved Jessa. No one had saved her and deep down Chloe pitied the girl, because she knew that it could've been her had things been different. And that knowledge strengthened her love for her friend, made her bond with her feel so much stronger, and she knew that she would do anything to protect her, to keep her safe.

* * *

They spent the first day in their new house unpacking ( everyone but Jessa, since she slept most of the day once her sugar high wore off). Once packing was done they all went to the local store and bought groceries, then they were busy putting everything they bought away. The second day in their house they spent cleaning. It was an old house and Kit said no one had lived in it for a few years. The owners were some people who lived in Vermont and they had inherited it, but never liked the house and were now renting it out to them.

On the third day all the teenagers in the house were all tired of being cooped up inside from the day before so they decided to explore the woods behind the house, since they had nothing else to do.

"Mmmm..." Jessa's head was tilted up in the air as they walked through the woods, "It smells so good out here. So fresh."

And Chloe had to agree with her friend, breathing in the cool spring air. She smiled to herself and grabbed Derek's hand, the air setting off some kind of high in her. Derek smiled down at her and intertwined his fingers with hers, squeezing her hand gently in his.

"You're weird." Simon poked Jessa in the stomach.

"Well, you haven't been smelling dust constantly for the past two days, now have you?. You try it sometime and you will feel the same way." Jessa shot back.

"What do you smell?" Simon asked, and Chloe frowned at his weird question as Derek laughed quietly at the face she made, but Jessa took the question in stride, all too used to Simon.

"I smell you, and I smell Derek and Chloe, and I smell Tori. I can smell the rabbit that's hiding in that bush right over there and that bird in the tree right over there. I can smell grass and dirt and a dead mole behind that tree there and dead leaves and water. There's a stream nearby. Somewhere over there." Jessa pointed at everything that they couldn't see, and Chloe was surprised that she could sense all that and not get confused.

At the mention of the stream, everyone perked up and decided to find it. They had started their adventure out by entering the forest by the side of she house, and in their search for the water source, they ended heading more towards the back of the house.

"It's somewhere up here." Derek said, his nose in the air, sniffing out their target. Derek, his curiosity getting the better of him again, had become very interested in finding this stream along with Simon, and both boys left their girlfriends in their pursuit. Both brothers were leading the way, driven by their shared curious natures, while the girls trailed behind, not really caring. Just enjoying the forest.

The early afternoon sunlight was filtering in through the trees canopies, casting patterns on the forest floor. The wind was blowing gently, rustling the leaves of the trees. And birds called back and forth in the early spring air, filling the air with their music. They were slowing making their way towards the back of the house as they searched for the stream, Chloe could just barely see the house from the distance they were at because of all the foliage in the way.

It was when they passed the house that Chloe felt it.

It didn't alarm her, not at first. It was just a feeling, a cold chill down her back, a shiver that made the hair on her arms rise. It didn't set of warning bells, it just made her feel a little uncomfortable. Something didn't feel right.

She looked at Jessa, to see if she wasn't the only one feeling this and saw that Jessa was scanning the area, looking for something, anything, but Chloe could tell that she had found nothing. She saw Jessa look at Derek, and Chloe looked at him as well, he didn't seem to sense anything, or notice that they had. In her mind she flashed back to their first night at the new house and remembered how Jessa had felt something weird, and Derek hadn't. They never really figured out why, or even tried, and Chloe knew it bugged Jessa, but they had just been too busy to investigate further.

So was that what Chloe was feeling now? That chill, that feeling that _something _wasn't quiet right, the feeling Jessa had supposedly felt and was feeling right now?

But if she could feel it then that meant that it was really there, that Jessa wasn't imagining it, nor was Chloe imagining it. So why didn't Derek feel it? Why didn't the others?

But before Chloe could go any farther with that thought Simon shouted, "Hey, look! There's a house over there!"

Chloe looked in the direction Simon was pointing, and saw a small, run down house, off in the distance. It was one story and looked like it had maybe three rooms in it. The widows were broken out of it, and the walls were wooden and must have at one point been painted white, but years of aging and harsh weather caused the paint to chip and fade to a gray-black color. One corner of the roof was caved in and weeds and trees were growing out through the cracks in the sides, roofs, and windows.

As soon as she saw the house the feeling that Chloe was experiencing increased. She shivered and rubbed her arms, looking sideways at Jessa who was doing the same thing. She didn't like the feeling the house was giving off, didn't like how it was out in the middle of the forest, deserted and run-down, far away from anything. She didn't like anything about it.

Simon ran right up to it and started walking through the gap where the front door must have been at some point. Derek and Tori followed. Chloe followed their path slowly and paused at the door, her instincts telling her to stop, not to go any further, but she was curious, she wanted to see what was inside, what everything looked like. And so, going against her better judgement, Chloe entered the house.

The walls were covered in old faded floral wall paper that was cracked and ripped from age, sagging from the wall in some places. The floors were wooden boards covered in dust that squeaked when pressure was applied to them. Chloe looked around her with wonder and apprehension, not sure what to think of the place. The first room they walked in looked like an old sitting room, full of old, mildewed, out-dated furniture. Leaves and animal droppings littered the floor, along with sticks and small animal bones.

It was extremely, unbelievable cold inside, which Chloe didn't understand since the house was mostly ruin down and open, there shouldn't have been any change in temperature from outside and inside. But she found herself shivering and rubbing her arms to keep herself warm. It was so cold, she expected to see her breath in the air, but she didn't. She glanced again at Jessa, who had also entered the run down shack after pausing at the door, and she was shivering too, her head swinging back and forth, letting her werewolf senses take everything in. This alarmed Chloe, to see Jessa panicking, to see her out of her normal composed self, it made Chloe feel even less secure.

She wondered why she was feeling this. There were no ghosts, at least none that she could see, but it was a small house and the ghosts would have found either her or Jessa by now. Chloe's mind flashed back to the night in the motel, the image of the bathroom filling her mind, and a spasm of fear ran through her as she worried that she might see a residual again. But she brushed off the fear quickly, she hadn't felt this feeling all the other times she had felt residuals, so that wasn't it. So if it wasn't a ghost and it wasn't a residual, then what was it? Why was she feeling this way?

They continued onto the next room, the one with the caved in roof. The others were looking at everything, chattering excitedly, but Chloe and Jessa stayed silent, not touching anything.

She felt like she could feel someone watching her, observing her, but when she looked over her shoulder, scanned the room, she saw no one, and that scared her all the more. She needed to leave, she didn't like it here.

"Oh cool!" she heard Simon say from around a corner. And fueled by reluctant curiosity, Chloe followed his voice and found him hard at work trying to open an old wooden chest.

"Here." Derek moved his brother aside and broke the lock that held the lid shut with his hands.

The chest opened with a loud creepy creak, one that made Chloe rub her arms and dance on her feet with nerves.

Tori and the boys started to rifle through the chest, pulling out old dresses and pictures and books.

Chloe watched them, not really caring what they found, just wanting to get out of the house, no longer finding the old house interesting.

"I'm going outside." Jessa said, her voice showed just a hit of the fear that Chloe was sure she was experiencing, the same fear she was feeling.

"Me too." Chloe said quickly.

"Are you okay?"

"What's wrong?" Both Simon and Derek asked at the same time, their heads snapping up from the items they were examining, their eyebrows crinkling with worry.

The two girls looked at each other, just wanting to get out.

"It feels weird in here." Chloe said vaguely.

"It feels bad." Jessa clarified, rubbing her arms and looking over shoulder at an empty hallway "I don't like it. I'm getting out of here."

Derek looked extremely worried, "We need to get out of here, then." He said, "If both of you are feeling this then it isn't just a coincidence." He was already pulling Tori away from a dress she was looking at and shoving everything back into the chest. "You should have told us sooner." he said, but he voice was filled with worry, and even though the words sounded rude, Chloe knew he was just letting them know that he didn't care what was going on, they should have told him that something was wrong, end of story.

Chloe and Jessa just about ran out to the door, the creepy watchful feeling they were experiencing increasing still, making their stomachs flip, causing their skin to crawl, but they settled for a fast walk, not wanting the others to worry more than was needed.

Chloe sighed happily as the door came closer and closer, freedom just feet away. But before they could cross the threshold a woman's voice rang out.

"Not so quick, girls, there is something I want from you."

Chloe and Jessa froze, at the voice that came from nowhere, and a woman materialized in front of them, blocking the door and their escape.

The woman's eyes were an iridescent blue, glowing brightly. Her figure was curvy and her long black hair fell down her back. The moment Chloe saw her, her instincts yelled _Demon! _and stomach dropped so fast that she was worried she might become sick.

_"_Oh shit." Jessa murmured.

Chloe just nodded

**Okay, so I wanted a more dramatic ending, but apparently the 'dramatic ending' part of my brain is on vacation this week, so this was the best I could come up with without it. **

**Basically the random women is a demon, and well, that's never good. If you're confused, thinking "_why is a demon there? this is so stupid and cheesy. what would a demon want?" _well, don't worry, it will be explained in the next chapter (once I get it written).**

**And now I'm sure some of you are thinking "_Why are both Chloe and Jessa stupid enough to walk into a house when they are already getting bad vibes?" _Well, I have to agree with you on that one, some times characters are so stupid. But I needed them to go into the house, so they needed to be a little stupid, I'm sorry. Don't kill me.**

**So thanks for reading. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, I am more than willing to answer, and if I don't answer it's probably because it will be answered in the next chapter. Please review!**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it took so long to update, I have been majorly busy, you have no idea. But I'm happy to announce that I now have a new laptop. But I'm also unhappy to announce that there are going to be more grammar mistakes than usual because my new computer doesn't check the spelling so I tried to edit it as much as possible, but even then there will probably be tons of mistakes. Sorrry, but keep in mind that I did my best.**

**Soooo... read and review.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers, so please stop asking for my autograph, majorly embarrassing.**

Chapter 5: Struggles

Chloe's heart was in her throat and her lungs were empty. She couldn't breathe or move as she stared at the demon in front of her.

"What is it?" Simon asked worriedly, unable to see what her an Jessa could.

"_It?" _The demon looked offended, "I am a female. Not an 'it', young man."

Chloe couldn't talk, couldn't move, couldn't tear her eyes away, could only stare at the demon in front of her. It's bright blue eyes were what creeped her out the most. They literally _glowed, _and were cold, holding no feeling, no kindness, just ice, just darkness. And as Chloe stared into the woman's eyes, she felt her limbs going cold, losing feeling.

The next thing that struck her was the demon's long hair. It was pitch black, but even that wasn't enough to express how dark it was. The demon's hair was the darkest thing Chloe had ever seen, drawing in light from the air around it, making the room feel cold, feel dark, feel hopeless, sucking away all happiness that had ever existed in Chloe's heart, sucking it away until all that was left was a cold unfeeling shell of herself.

The demon was cold, cold down to the very core, Chloe could feel the room chilling, could feeling the cold radiating from it's pale pale skin. And was cold, and this cold froze her, froze her movements, her thoughts, and her very soul, and she was unable to do anything.

"What's going on?" Derek asked firmly, coming up from behind her and putting a hand on her arm.

It was his hand that did it. It broke some spell that the demon had put on her, allowing her to breathe again, to feel like herself again, to look away from the creature that had hypnotized her.

She took a deep breath, focusing her mind on Derek, on his presence, the feel of his hand on her shoulder. If she focused on him, then she maybe she could stay out of the demon's grasp.

"It's a demon." She said, and Derek's reaction was instant. He stiffened and narrowed his eyes, as if by doing so he would be able to see what he couldn't already. But it was pointless. Chloe didn't know much for a necromancer, but she did know that demons were a part of the spirit world. Derek and the others weren't able to see the demon in front of them because they couldn't see the members of the spirit world. Only her and Jessa could. And that gave the demon an advantage over them.

She also knew that demons could be unbelievably powerful, depending on what kind they were. Chloe prayed that this was a nice demon that wouldn't give them trouble. But she knew she was just kidding herself. The way the demon radiated darkness, the way its very presence chilled her to her core, it was a sure sign that she was not a nice spirit.

"We need to get out of here." Derek's voice was low, almost a growl. His hand tightened on her arm, and Chloe knew just how worried he was, and with Derek that was never a good sign.

"You cannot leave." The demon said, narrowing her eyes at Derek, "There is something from you that I want."

Chloe relayed the message to Derek, who narrowed his eyes, tightening his grip on her even more. "We just want to leave." He raised his voice and his eyes scanned the room, "We didn't mean to disturb you. We're sorry." He pulled her and Jessa behind him, as if he could shield them, and he started to lead them towards the door.

They took only one step before their feet froze where they stood.

Chloe looked down at her feet in shock. It was like her feet were glued to the floor, and she tried to yank them free, but she couldn't. She looked at Derek, panic growing in her chest as she realized that he couldn't move either, none of them could.

"Maybe now you will listen." The demon said, "Don't try to break free," she added as both Simon and Tori started to struggle noisily, "You can't."

"What's it saying?" Derek asked, noticing that her and Jessa's attention were focused on something he couldn't see or hear.

"She said we can't escape." Jessa told him.

"She?" Derek asked.

Chloe and Jessa just nodded and the demon sighed heavily.

"I hate dealing with humans." The demon said, "They're so stupid, and it is irksome when they can't hear you." Then she smiled at her and Jessa, "But sometimes your stupidity serves my needs, like right now."

Chloe felt a cold chill run down her back, what ever this demon was talking about could not be good.

"Now what is she saying?" Derek asked, the worry in his voice starting to switch to annoyance since he couldn't hear what the demon was saying.

Jessa filled him in as Chloe continued to try and get a grasp on their situation. "What's your name?" Chloe asked the demon. Maybe if the thing had a name it wouldn't seem so scary.

The demon laughed, full and loud, sending an unpleasent shiver down Chloe's back. "My name is Nadinka, child." She paused as if waiting for Chloe to react, but Chloe had never heard that name before in her life.

Nadinka sighed, "I can't say I didn't expect a reponse. I haven't caused any chaos in centuries. I'm sure necromancers stopped warning their children about me long ago. You know, I used to be feared by all necromancers, but it seems that is no longer the case."

Jessa was translating what Nadinka said as she talked so Derek, Simon, and Tori knew what was happening.

Chloe felt the situation spirling out of control. They were stuck in a house with a demon that did not seem nice at all and wanted something from them. What ever it was that she wanted could not be good because if she wanted it from them it meant that she couldn't get it herself. They needed to leave and fast.

"Look," Chloe said, finally taking charge, "We don't want any trouble, we'll leave right away." And as she was saying it, she felt like one of those innocent girls in movies who were just seconds away from getting jumped by the rapist/mugger/kiddnapper.

"But you can't leave yet," Nadinka said, taking a step towards Chloe, her voice cold and compeling, making Chloe's opinion sway about leaving, "I haven't had any visitors for such a long time."

"I'm sorry," Chloe said, her voice shaky, trying to ignore the feelling of wanting to give into Nadinka, "But we have to leave." And she tried to move her feet, but still they felt like they were glued to the ground.

"Little girl," Nadinka smiled, but it didn't do anything to warm her cold gaze, "you amuse me with your naiveity. A necromancer, two of them, both walking into a prison that holds a demon. I never thought it was possible. And now that you are here, well, I can't just let you leave."

"Why not?" Jessa asked, "Why can't you just leave and go play with someone else. Why are you even here in the first place?"

The demon shot forward until she was right in Jessa's face, Jessa jerked back from surprise, "Do you think I enjoy being in a run down house in the middle of some forest, miles away from any where I could cause chaos?" Nadinka's eyes were filled with ice-cold fury, her hair was blowing in an invisible wind, and her skin seemed to glow with an unearthly light, "No, I don't. I'm stuck here, little necromacer, and if I weren't stuck here then I would not be here bothering you insignificant children."

"Jessa?" Simon's voice was cautious as he said his girlfriend's name. He knew something was wrong because he had seen her face turn white and had watched her lean backwards in surprise.

"I'm alright." Chloe was surprised to hear how steady Jessa's voice was.

"What did she say?" Derek asked yet again as both Chloe and Jessa failed to fill him in.

"She said she's stuck here." Chloe replied, watching as Nadinka backed away from Jessa.

"Why is she stuck here?" Derek asked.

"Because," Nadinka's voice was laced with venom, "I was banished here." She started to pace in front of them, her bright blue eyes glowing in her anger, listening as Jessa translated what she had said.

"Why were you banished?" Chloe asked, hoping that if she stalled maybe it would give Derek enough time to think up a plan, or she hoped that he could think up a plan, she wasn't sure how they were supposed to escape if they could't even move their feet.

Nadinka fixed her glowing blue eyes on Chloe and smiled a cold smile. Chloe tried to hold back a shudder, but she couldn't. She felt Derek's hand tighten on her arm, letting her know that he was there. "My sweet little girl, that is a very long story, but if I am going to use you, I might as well tell you why." Chloe did not like the way Nadinka said '_use you'._

"About three centuries ago I was one of the most feared female demons known to the necromancer world. It was hard to make a name for yourself then, since so many humans mistook a female demon's destruction for a male's." The demon said this like it was one of the most offensive crimes in the world, "So I had to get creative to make a name for myself." A creepy smile spread across Nadinka's face, and Chloe got the feeling that she didn't want to know what she had done.

"So once I got my name I attrached the attention of Lucifer, the highest ranking demon in the demon world." The smile widened, "I became his concubine, and stayed with him for over a century, the longest any female had ever stayed with him without being thrown aside. But," The demon sighed, "I messed up."

"Being Lucifer's concubine gained me a higher status, and with that higher status I bagan to take risks; risks that I normally wouldn't take, but was taking because I believed I couldn't get into trouble. I went to another man's bed one night, thinking that if Lucifer could have other options then so could I." Nadinka smiled grimly. "We were caught and I was sentenced here for five centuries, never to leave, no way out."

'"Wait a minute," Tori said once Jessa had repeated what Nadinka had said, "You cheated on the most powerful demon who ever existed?" Then she laughed.

"Little girl," Nadinka turned her cold gaze on Tori, "Just because I haven't killed you yet doesn't mean that I can't and that I won't."

"Tori," Jessa translated, "Shut up."

"Why do you want us?" Chloe asked, just trying to get down to the reason why they couldn't leave.

Nadinka shifted her attention from Tori to Chloe, and smiled at her, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I like you girl, let's stop the chit-chat and get down to business. I need you for this..." Chloe waited for Nadinka to finish her thougth, but as she watched the demon expectantly, Nadinka's image faded until she was no longer there.

"Where'd she go?" Jessa asked, frowning at Chloe. She shrugged as a response.

"Hey!" Simon said excitedly, "I can move my feet!"

Chloe was just looking down at her own feet, picking up her right foot to see if Simon was right when pain exploded in her head.

She cried out and fell to her knees, clutching her head as the world faded around her. A steel spike of pain kept stabbing into her head, sending radiating waves of pain through her skull. All she could see was darkness, and she squeezed her eyes the pain forcing tears to flow over her cheeks.

Through the pain she felt a presence in her head, a presence that shouldn't have been there.

_Let me in, little necromancer, _Nadinka's voice whispered to her, her voice sooting and calm, _Give up and let me in, everything will be alright._

Chloe felt herself waver, felt her entire spirit want to bend to the demon's words, and that scared her more than anything she had ever experienced.

_No, _she thought desperately, _No, please no. Don't do this to me._

_Little girl, _Nadinka whispered, _Don't fight it, everything will be alright, eveything will be fine, give in to me._

Chloe felt her spirit waver again and pain exploded in her skull, faintly she heard herself screaming, but it was from a long way away, she could feel herself fading.

_No. I won't let you. _She had to keep fighting, had to fight.

_Give up, little necromancer, give up and let me in, I won't hurt you._

_Leave me alone. _Chloe told her. _Leave me alone. I won't let you in, just leave me alone._

_You are being selfish, my sweet little girl, _Nadinka's voice was so appealing, so believable that Chloe almost listened to what she ordered, _I have done nothing to you and your friends. I have let them live while you tresspass in my home, and yet you deny me the one thing I want. You are wrong, little girl, you are the one in the dark here._

And Chloe almost believed, almost believed that Nadinka was being generous, that she was the one that was bad, the one that was doing wrong. She felt Nadinka push father into her mind and pain exploded through out her body. Some how this reminded her of the time in the safe house basement when Doctor Banks had stolen her body. That experience had terrified her, and she knew that she couldn't go through something like that again.

_You're lying. _Chloe replied, clutching her head, _You're lying. You're trying to steal my body, trying to take me away. You're the one who is selfish, I have done nothing to you. Leave me alone. Just leave. Me. ALONE!_

Chloe gathered together all the strength she could gather in her fading spirit and body and pushed at the presence that was Nadinka. She pushed and shoved at Nadinka, ignoring the pain that was stabbing at her skull. She gathered up the demon's spirit and shoved in away, and every time it felt like Nadinka was seeping her way through Chloe's barriers, she would shift her forces and drive her back out. She keep going, kept fighting against the demon that wanted to take her until Nadinka was gone, until the only person in Chloe's head was herself.

With a gasp Chloe's eyes flew open. She was lying on her back on the ground. Derek's dark green eyes were right in front of her, his face dark with worry.

"Chloe!" Derek's fingers ran over her face, as if making sure she was really there, "Chloe, is that you?"

"Yeah," Her voice was shaky, her whole body was shaky, "Yeah, it's me."

"When did we first meet?" Derek asked, making sure that it really was her.

"The Lyle house, in the kitchen. Simon was stealing some crackers and you came up behind me and scared the crap out of me." She gave a small smile at the memory.

Derek smiled, "Thank God. I thougth I lost you." He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her to his chest. Chloe just sighed happily and melted into him, having thought that she had lost him too.

But their happy moment was cut short by Jessa crying out in pain. Chloe broke apart from Derek, scrambling out of his arms.

Jessa was on her back, her body convulsing on the ground, her skin was paler than normal, her eyes were rolled back into her head, and a garbled whimper was escaping her lips.

_No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no _was all Chloe could think in the seconds that it took for her to get by Jessa's side.

"Jessa, you have to fight her!" She yelled, knowing that it was hard to hear the outside world from where Jessa was now, "You have to fight her, don't let her in!"

Chloe couldn't see any response to her words from Jessa, but she hope that her friend had heard them, that way she knew that she wasn't alone, that Chloe was there for her.

Jessa jerked on the ground, her body bucking and twisting and curling, and Chloe put her palms on Jessa's cheeks to keep her friend from ramming her head into the hard wooden floor.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon. c'mon..." Chloe whispered as Jessa continued to battle the demon that wanted inside of her, "Fight her, fight her, fight her..." Chloe knew all too well how easy it was to give into Nadinka, remembering the multiple times that she had almost listened to the demon's compelling voice. She knew Jessa would fight, knew that Jessa wouldn't fall for the demon's tricks because Jessa was the strongest person Chloe knew besides Derek. Chloe knew that Jessa wouldn't give in without a fight, a fight that hopefully Jessa would win.

But what Chloe didn't know was if Jessa had the power to banish Nadinka like she had. The only reason Chloe wasn't possessed by a demon right now was because of her out of control powers that helped her to stop the demon, that helped her to drive the demon out of her body. But Chloe wasn't sure if Jessa would be able to do that, she wasn't sure if her friend had the ability to do what she just did, and this scared her.

Jessa continued to jerk and twist on the floor, her earlier whimpers slowly turning into a high pitched keening sound, all of this reminded Chloe of the times she had watched Jessa go through her Pre-Changes before she was a full werewolf, not happy memories. A quick glance at Simon showed her that she wasn't the only one who thought this. His face was pale and his brow was creased, worry etched all over his face as he watched his girlfriend struggle with the demon that was trying to take her. Chloe had seen Simon make the same worried face numerous times in the weeks in which Jessa was transitioning into a full grown werewolf, and this caused her heart to fill with saddness.

And then suddenly Jessa went still, the only movement was the slow rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. Everyone was quiet.

"Jessa?" Chloe asked, her voice small as she feared the worst for her friend.

"Chloe?"

Chloe's head snapped up and she felt her heart fall.

Standing in front of her, dazed and confused, was Jessa's spirit.

Chloe felt Jessa's body stir beneath her hands; she scrambled back quickly out of fear and revulsion.

"Chloe?" Jessa's asked again, scared, "What's going on?"

Then Jessa's body's eye's opened and instead of seeing the exotic bright green that she was so used to, Chloe was met with a pair of bright, glowing, iridescent blue eyes. Nadinka's eyes.

"Hello, little necromancer," Jessa's voice said to her, but it wasn't Jessa's voice, it was colder, harsher, crueler, and just wrong, "Nice to see you again."

And then she smiled. It was the creepiest smile Chloe had ever seen in her life, it gave her chills and caused her to shudder because that smile came from her friend, it came from Jessa, but it wasn't Jessa, just her body.

**Buh- buh- buh- ! **

**So I'm going to apologize for any spelling mistakes and confusion. Nadinka is a demon, obviously. Her name is pronounced just the way it looks (Nuh-ding-kuh). I'm sorry if it got confusing towards the end, but what happened was Jessa got kicked out of her body by Nadinka and now Jessa's body is being possessed by Nadinka. I will make it more understandable in the next chapter. **

**Soooo... what do you think? How many of you saw this coming? Is it too predictable? I myself thought it was original and have yet to read a Darkest Powers fanfic that had to do with someone getting possessed. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas, it might help me because this was as far as I planned plot wise, so now I'm just going to have to wing it. Review please! If you review a whole bunch I promise I will write the next chapter faster!**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	6. Chapter 6

**So sorry it took me forever to post this chapter, but my laptop broke and so I was stuck using the family computer which is almost never free and school has been rather hectic. BUT I managed to finish the chapter, and that's all that matters. This chapter is shorting than the others, but not by much, just a few hundred words. I don't really know what to think of it, there were so many things I tried to put into this chapter and I'm not sure if I managed to clearly put them all in. I just don't know.**

**Anyway, I know this had nothing to do with anything, but I have noticed that one of my most favoritiest books _The Maze Runner _only has like 13 stories, and I think it has something to do with the fact that people are not reading it. So if you are in a reading funk and just can't find a great book to read I highly recommend reading _The Maze Runner _by James Dashner. It's awesome. I promise.**

**Disclaimer: I promise that I don't own the Darkest Powers series, I know some of you have been confused, but I swear I'm not Kelley Armstrong in disguise. Or am I? *Evil smile***

Chapter 6: Warnings

Chloe felt her stomach roll as she looked into Jessa's possessed eyes. She found herself fighting back the breakfast she had eaten hours ago, but she controled her stomach and managed to keep her food inside her.

"Jessa?" Simon said. Chloe forced herself to look away from Jessa's eyes (no not Jessa's, it wasn't her friend inside that body anymore, it was Nadinka.) and to look at Simon.

She could see the heartbreak on his face, could see the pain he was experiencing, could see that he was dying inside, and her own heart broke for him. "Jessa?" He asked again, his voice so weak and pitiful, and Chloe knew he already knew his girlfriend wasn't there anymore, but she also knew he didn't want to believe it, he had to know for sure.

"Simon!" Jessa's spirit, the real Jessa, the one that was really Chloe's friend, the one that was forced out of her own body, squealed his name. She had been watching the past few moments confused, but Chloe was sure that her friend had finally figured out what had happened. "Simon, I'm right here!"

But Simon didn't react to what Jessa had said, because he couldn't hear her, he couldn't hear her because Jessa was a spirit and now only Chloe could hear her.

"Boy," It was Nadinka, and Chloe flinched when she heard her using Jessa's voice, it sounded so cold and cruel, nothing like Jessa herself, "Boy," Simon was watching Nadinka (_Nadinka, not Jessa, not her friend, Nadinka, not her friend, not her friend, not her friend) _with a look of horror on his face. "Little boy, it has been such a long time since I have inhabitited a human body, such a very long time. The strength of human emotions are so strong, the hundreds of ways they feel, so vivid." Nadinka smiled, and she breathed in deeply, "It's so adicting."

Nadinka took a step forward, she even moved differently than Jessa. Jessa had always moved with unconscious grace, while Nadinka moved purposely smoothly, like she knew everyone was watching her and she needed to show off. Chloe tried to get up from her kneeling position on the floor as Nadinka approached her and Simon, not wanting to be closer to the demon than need be, but she found that once again she couldn't move her legs.

Nadinka walked right up to Simon, who was kneeling next to Chloe. She placed a hand on Simon's face, and he flinched, and Chloe found herself trying to remember that it was Nadinka who was in control of Jessa's body, not Jessa. But still, it seemed to weird to see Simon flinching at Jessa's touch, even if it wasn't Jessa, it was almost preposterous.

"Don't touch him!" Jessa yelled, the real Jessa, the one who only Chloe could see and hear. No, Chloe revised her thoughts, she saw Nadinka jump slightly at Jessa shout, Nadinka could hear her as well. Jessa ran up to Nadinka and tried to grab her arm, but she couldn't, her hand went right through the demon's arm. Jessa continued to try and move Nadinka away from Simom but to no avail.

Nadinka ignored Jessa, running her fingers over Simon's face, and Simon squeezed his eyes shut. "The way this body feels for you, it's unbelievable." Nadinka murmured, "The way it is so familiar to you, how it's connected to you. Even now I find myself wanting to heal your pain, to stop it." Her eyes fluttered and she breathed in deeply again, like she was inhaling Simon's pain, "But that would involve giving up something I have waited for for centuries."

She leaned in and put her lips nexted to Simon's ear, her dark hair brushing Simon's face, "Freedom" she whispered, "I have waited for my freedom and I'm not going to give it up, not even for you, you sweet little boy, even though it hurts this body, therefore hurting me, to deny you something that pains you so. But I am not going to give up my freedom." Chloe could hear Simon's breathing become ragged as he tried not to flinch away and show fear, as he tried not to cry at having his girlfriend so close to him, but it not being her.

"Simon." Jessa whimpered, Chloe had watched her friend as she had slowly accepted the fact that she couldn't touch Nadinka, had watched her listen to the exchange between Simon and Nadinka, and had watched as she saw Simon suffer. "Simon." Jessa tried to touch his arm, but her fingers went through Simon like he wasn't even there.

"Simon," Chloe said, and Simon jerked away from Nadinka's hand, and looked at Chloe, his eyes wild with dispair, "Simon, Jessa is still here." Chloe wanted him to know that his girlfriend wasn't gone, that he still had a chance to have her back, that everything wasn't lost yet. "She can still come back."

"I'm here." Jessa was whispering to him, even though he couldn't hear her; reaching out to him, even though she couldn't touch him, "I'm not gone, I'm still here."

"Yes," Nadinka's lips curled with distaste, "The girl is still here, but don't get your hopes up, boy." She patted Simon on the head and he glared at her.

"Don't touch me." He said quietly.

"No matter," Nadinka brushed off Simon's comment and walked away from him, "The only way your girl is coming back is if I give up her body willingly, which is something I am not going to do, even if it will make you feel better."

"To hell you aren't!" Jessa yelled at her, "I'm gettig my body back whether you like it or not!"

"Girl," Nadinka looked coldly at Jessa, "You are really starting to annoy me."

"Good." Jessa spat, "maybe if you give me my body back I will stop."

"That isn't going to happen for a very long time." Nadinka said, "So accept it."

"And I'm not happy about you stealing my body, so I'm going to take it back, so accept _that_." Jessa said, narrowing her eyes.

"If it helps," Nadinka said, "I never wanted your body. I wanted hers." She pointed to Chloe, and Chloe did her best not to shrink back from Nadinka's gaze, still overwhelmed at seeing Jessa be possessed.

"She has that innocent look to her," Nadinka was approching her now, studying her face, "It is so much more easier and so much more fun to cause chaos in the bodies of those who seem innocent." Nadinka reached out and put a hand on Chloe's cheek, and she tried not move away, knowing that it would give away just how afraid she was, "So pretty," Nadinka mused, then she turned to Jessa, "Not that you aren't beautiful as well, my dear, but she has this sort of glow that attracts people to her, makes them want to trust her, something that you lack." Nadinka gave Chloe another longing look.

"And to think that someone who looks so innocent and weak is actually so powerful." She shook her head sadly, "It's been many mellina since I have met a necromancer that has had the power to challenge a demon, I thought that it had died out by now. I suppose I was wrong." She turned back to Jessa, "Plus, you're part werewolf, my dear, and I don't know how the combination of two super naturals is possible, but some how it is. I've been the body of a werewolf before, and the Change is more pain than I am willing to experience." Nadinka shuddered, "And I'm not looking foward to going through the Change again, but I have no other choice."

"What do you mean!" Jessa yelled, "What do you mean you have no other choice? There are three other people in this room besides me and Chloe, and I'm not saying that you should go and steal their bodies, but don't you dare say that I'm am your only choice!"

"But little girl, you are wrong." Nadinka smiled, "You _are_ my only other choice. I said eariler that I was sentenced here for five centuries, and that there was no way out. But you see, I lied." Nadinka smiled sweetlly, but it wasn't in anyway sweet, it was cold and calculating and meant to decieve, "I lied when I said there was no way out, because there was, but I was never meant actually to find it." Nadinka laughed coldly, "The council who sentenced me to this banishment wanted to make it so I couldn't escape my confinement here, they were quite jealous of me, but you can't hold a demon as powerful as I am in one place forever without granting them a way out. That is just not how it's done. They had to give me a chance to escape, a chance to be free again before my punishment was up."

Nadinka smiled coldly, "They declared that the only way I could escape was if I possessed a necromancer's body. It was quite clever really, quite clever indeed. Any necromancer that ever actually approached the house would feel my power from hundreds of yards away, and then they would be warned that I am there and stay away." Nadinka looked at Chloe and Jessa, smiling, " The council thought that they had me, that I would indeed be stuck here for a full five centuries, but you two came anyway, you came even after your powers warned you of me."

Chloe could feel the blood draining from her face. Of course. She had felt it, felt the power that Nadinka was giving off from far away, but she hadn't known what it had meant. Neither had Jessa, neither of them had known that want they were feeling was the demon that would come to possess Jessa. _If only I had been trained, _Chloe thought, _If only someone could have told me what this meant. I should have know though, I should have stopped Jessa from entering the house, I was so stupid._ She could feel tears coming. After everything she had been through she should have known to stop as soon as she felt something wrong; hadn't her past experiences taught her nothing? She should have known, should have seen it coming, but it was too late now; it was too late for her to change her decision and too late to save Jessa.

"So, as I said, I wanted the blonde one," Nadinka continued, addressing Jessa, "But she proved to be more powerful than I ever imagined, and so I took you instead."

Chloe's lips trembled, and she lowered her head, not wanting to look at her friend. She was the reason Jessa was possessed, she was the reason, it was all her fault, Jessa must hate her, hate her with all her heart, with all her spirit...

"And you can bet that Chloe will steal me back." Jessa's voice was hard and confident, causing Chloe to look up at her, "That's what friends do, when one of us gets possessed, we steal their bodies back, we'd risk our lives for each other." Jessa's voice was rising and she walked slowly towards Nadinka, anger filling her every word, "So you better watch out, demon, because Chloe is one hell of a fighter and one hell of a friend, if I were you, I would be scared right now." The fire glowing in Jessa's eyes had Chloe almost shaking, but she was also smiling. Jessa didn't hate her, she almost wanted to cry.

"No one can best me." Nadinka said coldly, "A whole demon council failed to keep me trapped, you don't even stand a chance." It was so weird. Chloe was watching as two Jessas faced off. They were both glaring at each other, the only difference between them now were their eyes.

"She's right." Chloe said firmly, trying to put as much conviction into her voice as possible, "I will save her, I will steal her back, and you will lose."

"That's rather presumptuous, little necro." Nadinka said coldly, directing her gaze away from Jessa and back to Chloe, "You assume too much. There is no way that you, barely more than a child, could defeat me, one of the strongest demons the human world has ever known."

"She's not going to be alone," Derek, who had been silent through out the whole ordeal, chimed in, "She has us."

"And let's face it," Tori said, agreeing, "We can kick some serious ass."

"And I'm not going to let you steal my girlfriend away from me." Simon's voice was cold, hard, and kind of scary.

"Says the group of kids who walked into a trap." Nadinka said dryly, "Some how I find everything you said hard to believe."

"Well, believe me when I say this," Jessa said, walking back into Nadinka's line of sight, "My friends are going to kick your ass from here to the seventh circle of Hell. I suggest you hand over my body now before you have to deal with the consequences."

Nadinka's face didn't show any emotion, it was unreadable. Silence filled the air, and Chloe could tell that something was going to happen, could feel the tension saying that something was coming.

A slow smile started to spread across Nadinka's face, a cold, hard, scary smile that caused Chloe to shudder because she had never seen something so icy appear on Jessa's face before.

"I refuse to acknowledge your suggestion," Nadinka said to Jessa, then she turned to Chloe, Simon, Derek, and Tori, and spoke, "Goodnight children."

Chloe was just wondering what Nadinka meant by those last two words when her entire world went black.

**So this is like what? The second or third cliffy I have written so far for this story? I feel so evil :) **

**Anyway, you all know the drill, review please. Give me ideas, help me further my story. I do know a bit more about where I am going, but if you have suggestions, I'm willing to hear them. **

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	7. Chapter 7

**So I finished this chapter pretty quickly, I figured out that I write best when I sit at my kitchen table and listen to music. I really don't have much to say this time... Oh! But I do want to thank everyone who reviewed. I love you guys! And I urge anyone who normally doesn't review to please review! Please! And if you are one of the people who decided to read my story without first reading A Werewolf In The Making, well... you might get confused, but I tried my best to explain it, so good luck!**

**Disclaimer: Well, I can't think of anything funny to say, soooooo, yeah, I don't own the Darkest Powers series... yeah...**

Chapter 7: Purple

Chloe could feel herself coming back to consciousness, could feel her fuzzy thoughts starting to work again as she became aware of the world around her. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs, becoming conscious of the musty smell that filled her nose. She frowned at this, wondering where she was. Then she realized that she was lying face down on the floor. She frowned even more at this: What had she been doing?

She moved her arms, intending to lift herself up, but found that her limbs were numb and weren't working. She didn't panic, she could sort of feel her arms and legs, it was just as if she had fallen asleep on them wrong and that her circulation had been cut off and she could slowly feel them coming back to her.

She turned her head sideways and cracked her eyes open. She was in some old run-down house; she couldn't see much because the light coming through the doorway was low from the sun setting outside. How did she get here? Where were Derek and Jessa and the others at?

She heard someone groan beside her, and she turned her head to the other side and saw Derek coming to consciousness beside her. "Chloe?" He voice sounded thick, and kind of confused, like he too had no idea where he was.

"Right here." Her own voice sounded weird, like she had just woken up from deep sleep. She could move her fingers now, and used her hands to sit up, leaning her back against the nearest wall.

She looked at Derek, as he tried to gain his bearings, slowly starting to move his arms and legs. Simon and Tori were also sprawled out on the floor and starting to wake up from whatever had caused them all to fall asleep.

"Where are we?" Tori asked, squinting at the house around them, "Why is it so dark?"

"Where's Jessa?" Simon asked, sitting up quickly, only to fall back down, groaning and gripping his forehead.

Chloe frowned at this. Jessa... where _was _Jessa at? She couldn't remember.

"Something happened." Derek murmured, scooting over so he was sitting beside her. He took her hand in his, and it wasn't until the fiery warmth of his skin touch hers that Chloe realized that she was freezing. The air was unbelievably cold, she could see her breath in the air with the help of the fading sunlight. She started to shiver and Derek wrapped an arm around her, bringing her closer to him.

"Where's Jessa?" Simon asked again, sitting up, his voice more panicked, sharper.

"I... don't... know..." Chloe replied, frowning, her mind in a fog, unable to see into her memories. She tried to push through it, but it was too thick and her mind seemed sluggish. She didn't like the feeling of not knowing what had happened, when she knew that she did know; she didn't like not being able to read her memories. She moved closer to Derek and his arm around her tightened.

"It's so damn cold." She heard Tori murmur, the light around them fading by the second. "And dark." A second later a sphere of white light was floating above Tori's palm, lightening everything around them.

Tori and Simon were both sitting up now, and their faces looked sharper in the white light Tori was producing.

"We need to get back to the house," Derek said, "Once there me and dad can go looking for Jessa."

"Oh, hell no! I'm-"

"Derek! I'm not sitting in the house like-"

Began Tori and Simon, but Chloe quickly shushed them, having heard something.

"Finally!" It was Jessa, "It's about time you guys woke up!"

"What?" Derek, Tori, and Simon asked at the same time, wondering why Chloe has shut them up.

"You didn't hear her?" Chloe asked, searching the darkness that Tori's light couldn't penetrate, trying to find Jessa.

"Hear who?" Derek asked, his arm tightening around her again. Chloe craned her neck, trying to see her friend.

"They can't hear me, Chloe." She heard Jessa say, and her friend approached the light, and Chloe could finally see her.

"What do you mean they can't hear you?" Chloe asked, something tugging at her mind, like she was close to remembering something, "Of course they can hear you; can't you guys?"

"What are you talking about, Chloe?" Tori asked, impatiently, "We can't hear anything, just you."

Chloe frowned, starting to get scared about her friends not being able to hear Jessa. "But can't you see her?" She asked, her voice shaking a bit, her mind coming so close to the memory of what had happened, but it was still out of reach.

"See who?" Derek's voice was a bit sharp.

"Jessa." Chloe's lips formed the word, and as soon as it was out the air seemed to suddenly weigh 100 pounds, pressing down on them as they all realized what it meant by Chloe being able to see their friend but not them themselves.

"Jessa?" Simon's voice was quiet and shaky as he called to his girlfriend.

"I'm right here," Jessa said softly, walking up to him, pressing her hand against his cheek, but it went right through him.

"Are you dead?" Chloe asked her, her jaw starting to wobble.

"No," Jessa sighed, "I didn't know you guys would lose your memories. This is going to be difficult to explain."

"Is she dead?" Simon asked, looking at Chloe like his life depended on it, his eyes shiny.

"She says she's not..." Chloe replied, frowning as her mind came so close to breaking through the fog that blocked her memories, but still, not close enough.

"Do you remember anything?" Jessa asked, her hand hovering just a hairs-breath away from Simon's cheek. She looked up at Chloe, "Anything at all?"

"No..." Chloe frowned, the fog blocking her mind again, "It's like it's blocked. But I know something happened..."

"Yeah," Jessa smiled sadly down at Simon, "Something definitely happened."

"What's she saying?" Derek asked, but Chloe just waved her hand at him, shushing him.

Jessa looked up at her from Simon, blinking fast, her lips shaking a little.

"What happened, Jessa?" Chloe's voice was soft, realizing that something big had happened to her (obviously) and Jessa was just barely holding it together.

Jessa smiled at her sadly, "Do you remembering walking through the forest this morning?"

Chloe frowned, trying to remember, and slowly it came back. "Yeah, I remember that."

Derek started to open his mouth again, getting ready to ask her another question and Chloe shot him a look that caused him to shut his mouth.

Jessa smiled at that, then continued, "Do you remember that weird feeling we both got? And the house we saw?"

"Yeah..." It was all starting to come back to her, everything that Jessa was saying bringing back more of the memory that she was missing.

"Do you remember walking inside?" Jessa asked, giving her time to remember before continuing, "Do you remember Nadinka?"

And **BAM! **It all came back to Chloe. Everything. All at once.

"Jessa!" Chloe whispered, and something on her face must have shown her understanding, because Jessa just nodded sadly, saying, "Yeah, I know."

"What?" Tori snapped, and when Derek tried to stop her from interrupting Chloe, Tori turned on him, "Oh, shut up, it's obvious that she remembers what happened! _I _want to know what happened."

"She's not dead." Chloe said, staring at Jessa, unable to believe what had happened to her friend, "She's possessed. The demon Nadinka took her."

And just like that, they all remembered, their faces turning from shock to horror as their memories came spinning back.

"Wha-?" Tori seemed speechless, her face dazed as the memories came rushing back.

"Jessa?" Simon whispered feebly, his face looking shallow and pale in the white light cast by Tori.

"Ah, man." Derek groaned, rubbing his his eyes, "This is not good."

Jessa snorted, "You're telling me."

"Derek!" Simon said frantically, "We have to follow Nadinka and catch her so we can Jessa's body back!" He was already scrambling to his feet.

"Chloe tell him to sit back down." Jessa said, staring at Simon worriedly.

"Simon, Jessa said sit down." Simon just stared at Chloe, unsure if he should listen or not, but then he slowly sat back down, he face immeasurably sad.

"Chloe would you please translate for me?" Jessa asked politely.

"Yeah," Chloe smiled slightly, trying her best to stay calm and not break down, "You're the first to ever ask."

Jessa gave a small laugh and smiled, "Well, you guys have no chance of catching Nadinka, she's already on a plane and heading for Las Vegas."

"Las Vegas?" Derek asked sharply, "How?"

"She did something to you guys," Jessa said, frowning, "I'm not sure what it was but you were passed out for hours, and that was more than enough time for her to escape. I followed her for as far I wanted to, and it was far enough for me to know that she was going to Vegas."

"So now what?" Tori asked no one in particular, "She jacked Jessa's body and ran, what are we going to do now?"

"You need to get back to the house." Jessa told Chloe sternly, "Kit and Aunt Lauren are freaking out, and Simon needs to eat something before his blood sugar gets too low."

Chloe looked at Simon and silently agreed with Jessa, Simon didn't look too good. With all the stress about losing his girlfriend and it being so long since he had last eaten he needed to get home.

"We should go back to the house." Derek said, having the same idea as Jessa, "Dad and Chloe's aunt will probably do something drastic if we don't show up soon."

"Derek's right," Chloe agreed, not wanting to mention that Simon needed to get back to the house more than any of them, "We need to get back."

Tori and Simon agreed and they all stood up and walked out of the house.

"So," Tori said breaking the silence that had settled over them as they walked through the dark forest, "How exactly are we going to explain this to Kit and Aunt Lauren?"

Chloe had to admit that was a very good question that she didn't have the answer to.

* * *

Kit and Aunt Lauren took the news pretty well. When they had finally showed up at the house both of them started yelling at the four of them saying they were grounded (Ha!) and that they had thought they were dead/kidnapped/stuck in a well (the last one was Aunt Lauren) and so when they said the reason that they were late was because the demon that possessed Jessa caused them all to pass out and temporarily lose their memory, well it wasn't as bad as all of them dying, but it wasn't good either.

"Dad," Simon asked after everything was explained, his voice sounded tired, "What are we going to do?"

Everyone looked at Kit, even Derek, expecting him to come up with a plan that would get Jessa back to them because that was what Kit did, he knew the most, therefore he would know what to do. But as Chloe watched him expectantly, she could tell that Kit didn't know what to do. He looked shocked and pale and his usual bright eyes were dull and glassy as he absorbed what they had told him. Chloe felt her heart fall. There was no plan. He had no idea what to do.

"Oh, God." Jessa said, her voice full of horror, "He doesn't know what to do." Chloe looked at her friend and was shook to her core to see that Jessa had tears running down her face, "Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God..." She kept murmuring over and over again, sobs escaping her mouth, her face crumpled.

Chloe was shocked, she had never seen Jessa like this. But then it wasn't like she wasn't expecting it, but it was just a shock. Jessa had always been strong. Always. Even when she found out that she could quite possibly die during her transformation into a full grown werewolf Jessa hadn't cried, or if she did Chloe didn't she her cry. Seeing someone who was so strong, who had always beat everything that had thrown itself at her, crying scared Chloe and made her look at Jessa as more than an unbeatable girl who could handle everything, it made her see her as human (so to speak), made her see Jessa as vulnerable. Chloe's head spun a bit, how many times in the past few days had she Jessa in a new light, in a way that made her seem childish?

But Chloe knew that Jessa wasn't childish, that Jessa was anything but childish. Jessa was strong and brilliant and anything that reduced Jessa to this crying girl that she was watching now had to be bad because Jessa could handle everything. Or so Chloe thought.

She didn't like seeing Jessa this way. It was like her brain couldn't process it. It was like it caused her to change a belief that she had unknowingly set into stone. The sky was blue; rain was wet; Jessa could handle anything. She couldn't fathom anything that could contradict what she believed, but there was Jessa, crying, breaking down right before her eyes, the hard shell that had always protected her friend was cracking and Jessa's soft underbelly was revealing itself. The thought that anything could do such a thing enraged Chloe, made her want to punch something, which surprised even herself.

She needed to comfort Jessa, but she couldn't do so without drawling the attention and offending Kit who still hadn't come up with a plan to get Jessa back. But Chloe was saved by Purple appearing.

Purple was an old friend of Jessa's from the lab they both grown up in being experimented on. Since the scientists there never officially named the kids that took part in the experiment, they were forced to name themselves. Chloe once heard Jessa say that she named herself after a nurse that had been really nice to her; Purple had named herself after her favorite color, purple. Purple, along with all the other kids who had been a part of the experiment, died in the lab when she was deemed a failed experiment when she had a temper tantrum and her half-demon blood caused her to fling items across the room and the scientists deemed her too out-of-control. Jessa was the only one to actually survive the experiment, escaping from the lab with the help of Purple's ghost, who was, like Liz, able to move objects in the living world.

Purple had stuck with Jessa through the three years that Jessa had spent living on the streets, helping her friend to survive. About two months ago Purple started spending more time on the other side than in the living world, only visiting her best friend every once in a while, but as far as Chloe could tell Jessa didn't mind this change because Purple seemed honestly happy with what she was doing.

Chloe took in the young girl, forever stuck at the age of 13, forever wearing her dark jeans and her purple turtle-neck sweater. Purple really was beautiful, and Chloe wondered what she would look like now, had she not died. With pale, clear, soft skin surrounded by a long wavy mass of dark brown hair, Chloe was sure that Purple's looks would have competed with Jessa's.

"Jessa!" Purple squealed.

"Purple!" Jessa sobbed, looking up with surprise at her best friend.

"Oh, Jessa! I just heard!" Purple ran up to her friend and tackled her in a hug. Chloe half-expected Purple to go right through Jessa; without Nadinka around Jessa looked no different than she normally did, and seeing Purple running at Jessa, Chloe could imagine things being normal and Purple being a ghost and Jessa being in her body. But Purple didn't go through Jessa, she ran right into her and wrapped her arms around her best friend's waist for the first time since Purple and Jessa had been seperated physically by Death more than three years ago. The thought made Chloe sad.

"Oh, Jessa, sweetie! It will be okay." Purple said, patting Jessa's back, "Tell you what, I will track that demon down and kick her ass! Will that make you feel better? If it won't it will sure make me feel better. Stealing your body! I can't believe she did that! So she had 237 years left to her sentence in that stupid house; that gave her no reason to kidnap your body! I will track her down and kick her from her into the next world! You just wait, she will regret ever..." Chloe smiled to herself as she listened to Purple's signature babble. The girl never shut up and was totally random. Chloe loved her.

"Why are you smiling?" Derek asked her, his face confused, not understanding.

"Purple's here." Chloe said softly, "And she's babbling."

Derek gave her a look, like he didn't know what to say. What do you say to something like that? He knew who Purple was of course, but he had never met her or heard her babble, so Chloe knew he wouldn't understand.

"Purple's here?" Simon asked, "Is she helping Jessa?"

"Of course I'm helping her!" Purple said sharply, looking at Simon, "What do you think I'm doing, Wonder Boy? Skipping around singing Christmas carols?"

"Yes." Chloe said, answering Simon, glad at what he was hearing.

"Is she okay?" Simon asked, looking at Chloe with worried eyes, "Is Jessa okay?"

Chloe looked at Jessa who was calming down considerably with the help of her best friend's presence. She was starting to smile at Purple's crazy babble, laughing at something that Chloe couldn't completely hear.

"Yeah," Chloe said quietly, looking at Purple and Jessa, both of them laughing and smiling like it was any old day, forgetting the fact that they were both in the spirit world, separated from the living world, just glad to see each other again, "Yeah, she's okay."

**So I lost control of this chapter. I had a sort of-kind of plan, it was rather vague to be honest, buuuuuuuutttttttt I started writing it and the chapter took on a life of its own and I couldn't stop it. I really don't know what to think of this chapter... so let me know what YOU think by reviewing. Please! **

**Now I realize that this is a Chloe and Derek story and I haven't had much of them in this story so far, and I planned on there being more of them, but sometimes I just can't control what I write and that's just how it ends up. But I promise to have a Derek and Chloe moment in the next chapter, I just don't know what it is or how it will happen but I promise it will happen... Once I figure out what it is...**

**So yeah! Please review! They always make me happy! And they normally make me type faster, too, so it just depends on how much you want the next chapter.**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well, here's the Chloe and Derek moment that I have promised you... I'm not going to lie, this one really got away from me. I started writing this with an idea where I wanted it to go, what point I wanted to get across, what I wanted to happen between the two of them, but as soon as I started writing it completely fell through. Don't worry, it's not graphic and it's still rated T, the part I lost control of was not that part. I just don't know what to think of the chapter. It turned out completely different than what I wanted it to be, but I can't tell if it is good, okay, or oh-my-god-this-SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. So... yeah... go ahead and start reading... it's rather long.**

**Disclaimer: I would be rich, famous, and married to Derek right now if I owned The Darkest Powers series, since I am none of these it's obvious that I don't own it :(**

Chapter 8: No Worries

Chloe didn't really remember much after Purple showed up and calmed Jessa down. She remembered eating and taking a shower; she remembered watching Kit pacing the kitchen, rubbing his forehead, trying to think of something to do; and she remembered feeling like she was moving in slow motion, or at least her brain was.

She assumed it was shock, it would make sense if it was shock. She was thinking this as she sat on the couch in the living room, a blanket wrapped around her, staring off into space her mind not really landing on anything, just bouncing around from one idea to the next. Simon was in the room too. He was sitting in a chair across from the couch she was on, his legs underneath him, his eyes staring blankly out a window. Chloe examined his face: pale, tired, and lost. He was taking the loss of Jessa really hard, the hardest really, seeing how he didn't just lose a friend he lost his love.

_But she's not gone,_ Chloe thought to herself firmly, _we can still get her back, we just need a plan. _And that caused her to look through the kitchen door to see Kit pacing back and forth in front of the stove, trying, as he had been for the past few hours, to think of a plan. And so far with no luck at all.

She supposed she shouldn't complain, everyone had their weaknesses when it came to certain situations, and she guessed that trying to get someone unpossessed from a crazed demon was Kit's weakness. And, unfortunately, that was a weakness they couldn't afford to have.

Jessa was away right now, both her and Purple were. They needed to keep track Nadinka so they knew where Jessa's body was and what Nadinka was doing to it. Jessa said she was able to know where her body was at all times, so they needn't worry about losing Nadinka, all Jessa had to do was poof and see where her body was at the moment.

What they were more concerned about was not where Jessa's body was, but what her body was doing. Nadinka had expressed her love of chaos to them repeatedly in the short time in which they had met her, and what worried them all was what she planned on doing with Jessa's body. It was all too easy to imagine what Nadinka could do with Jessa's strength and her ability to turn into a wolf, add Nadinka's own powers to it and the amount of chaos that could be produced was drastically high, and all this was a danger for Jessa, or at least her body.

Chloe sighed and shifted position, wishing something would happen, that something would change the situation they were all in at the moment.

Derek pushed open the door that led to the kitchen. He had been helping Kit come up with a plan by bouncing ideas off of him, but after a while he fell silent, unable to come up with anymore ideas.

Derek sat down next to her on the couch. Chloe automatically shifted closer to him, lying her head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"What are we going to do?" Chloe whispered, her despair clear.

"We're going to save Jessa." Derek stated quietly, resting his head on top of hers.

"How?"

"I haven't figured that part out yet." Derek admitted. Chloe smiled. She smiled even though what he said wasn't that funny, but because she knew that he was trying to be funny and cheer her up, something that was very hard for Derek to do since most of his humor consisted of extremely dry sarcasm.

She smiled a how much he cared for her, and how much he wanted to help, and shifted even closer to him, enjoying him being so close.

After a while Simon sighed and got to his feet, without glancing at them he left the room, his face a daze.

Chloe felt Derek lift his head off of hers as he watched the place where his brother had just left, confusion on his face as he tried to decide what he should do.

"I think it's best that he's left alone." Chloe murmured, watching Derek's face, "He just needs time to adjust to everything, to get rid of the shock, then you can approach him about it."

Derek gave her a pained look, one that said he was totally out of his element at the moment.

"He'll feel better once we have a plan," Chloe said with certainty, because she knew Simon would, they all would. Once they had a plan they would finally have something to do, and once they had something to do they would no longer feel like they just sitting around waiting for Nadinka to go destroy something, putting Jessa in danger.

Derek looked skeptic, she rolled her eyes, the way he worried about Simon... "Give him some time." Chloe said, "And once we have a plan he'll cheer up a bit. When Jessa comes back I'll communicate to him for her. He most likely doesn't want to talk right now, would you?" She was referring to if she had been possessed, not Jessa.

Chloe had meant for it to be a rhetorical question, but Derek, of course, didn't take it that way. "If it were me," He said, his eyes darkening at the thought, "I wouldn't be here, I would be on a plane hunting that demon down for stealing your body."

"And what would you do once you got there and realized you didn't have a plan?" Chloe asked, hating how Derek was so smart, how he was always looking ahead, but when it came to her and Simon and his dad he was more impulsive than the rest of them, not caring if he got hurt as long as they were okay.

"I would think of something." He said.

"Something that would involve you getting yourself killed most likely." She said, pulling away from him, turning to look at him "Derek, do you realize how mad I would be at you if you did something like that?"

"I know, but I would be helping you." Derek said, frowning, trying to understand what she was getting at.

"Not if you don't have a plan!" Chloe said exasperated, gesturing with her hands, "Not if you don't fully know what your up against! Not if you don't know how to get Nadinka to leave my body! Derek," Chloe sighed, trying to calm down a bit, "You can't just blindly walk into danger if you think you're doing it to save someone else. You can't just take risks with your life when waiting would be the smart thing to do!"

Derek was still frowning, "I know," He said quietly, "But I don't want you hurt, especially when I could do something to stop it." Most girls would think that was romantic, but Chloe just wanted to throttle him.

"And if you died?" She asked, trying to be blunt, trying to make him see that he wasn't expendable, "Then what we would do? You do realize that we need you Derek? That you're one of the reasons that we aren't dead every day?"

"Jessa can do everything I can," Derek said, just stating facts from the sound of his voice, "More actually."

Chloe's mouth dropped open in disbelief, "You can't be serious!" Derek looked completely serious, "You can't seriously believe that you are expendable, that Jessa could replace you?" Chloe looked at him with horror as he didn't argue with what she had said, "Derek! You can't think that!" Her heart dropped as he looked away from her. Did he really think that his death wouldn't impact them at all? That they wouldn't be affected?

"Derek," her voice was calmer, more reasonable as she tried to get him to look back at her, "Derek, look at what losing Jessa has done to us." She said, trying to get him to see, "We're not freaking out because we lost her strengths; because if you think about it there's nothing that she can do that me and you can't. We're freaking out because she is gone and we love her." Her voice was quiet, "We miss her, that's why we want her back, not because we want to use her, but because we love her." She looked at him with soft eyes as he continued to look away. "Derek," She said quietly, taking his big hand in hers, Derek lowered his eyes to look at their hands, "We all love you. You have a dad and a brother that would miss you so much if you were gone, I would just about die, Jessa would lose a good friend, Aunt Lauren would be sad, and I'm sure even Tori would miss you, not because you're a werewolf and can protect us, but because we love you. We love _you,_ Derek, not what you can _do_."

Chloe paused, looking at their hands, intertwining her fingers with his, "I love you, Derek. If you die I wouldn't be sad because you would no longer be there to protect me, but because you would be gone. I would miss you; I would miss you so so much." Chloe's eyes started to get wet, how many times had she waited for Derek to come back from some risky plan that he had created, not even knowing if he would ever come back at all? Too many, and thinking about losing Derek seemed all too real for her, more real than it should be. "I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose you, Derek. I don't want to think about it. But I love you, Derek, and love isn't expendable, so that means that you aren't expendable; so if you go and get yourself killed because you went and did something stupid, I swear to you that I will make your afterlife a living hell."

She lowered her head, having nothing else to say, just trying to get the thought of Derek dying out of her head. The thought gave her a bad feeling; a sick, gross, horrid, empty feeling that made her want to curl up in a ball and weep for days on end.

Derek took used the hand that she wasn't already holding and lifter her chin up gently. His eyes seemed so vulnerable, like he let down his normal barriers. He smiled slightly at her, "I don't have a suicide wish, Chloe." Derek said quietly, "And I don't think that you guys are heartless and won't care if I died. But when one of you are in danger, I don't think about that. All I care about is keeping you guys safe and the consequences can be dealt with later. I don't purposely put myself in danger," Derek frowned, "Well maybe I do, but the only reason I ever do that is to keep you guys safe. In my mind you guys are worth more than I am." He rubbed his thumb against her cheek softly, "I know I'm not expendable, but I _have _to protect you, all of you, and if dying is the only way to do that, then I am willing to die. When I said Jessa can do everything I can do, I was just stating that if I was gone, you would still have someone to look after you guys like I did, someone to keep you safe."

Chloe felt a tear run down her cheek. _How much has he thought about this? _she wondered. She knew that werewolves have this pathological need to protect everyone they cared about, and when werewolves wanted to do something, they always did it in the extreme. She knew that Derek and Jessa were both willing to risk their lives for them to keep them safe, and she was willing to do the same, but she wasn't as drastic as those two were. They didn't think if someone they loved were in danger, and if they did think then it was about the safety of the person in danger, not about their own safety and that infuriated her.

Derek wiped away her tear using his thumb, his eyes staring into her. "What's wrong?" He asked quietly, his voice not alarmed as it normally was whenever she cried, which was rarely.

"I don't want you to die." She said, her voice thick.

"I'm not trying to die," Derek told her, "I'm trying to keep you safe so nothing bad happens to you. I almost failed today." His eyes got a far away look to them, "I couldn't do anything when Nadinka was trying to take you, trying to possess you and that, well, it scared me. A lot." Chloe was amazed that he actually admitted that. Derek never said that he was scared, and it was... well it just surprised her.

"Tell you what," Chloe said softly, leaning into him, "I will try to stop getting myself in danger and you will think a bit more before doing something stupid, agreed?"

Derek tilted her chin up to him, their faces just inches apart, and smiled at her, "Agreed."

And then his lips were on hers and she was wrapping her arms around his neck and his arms were going around her waist. It was wonderful to be kissing Derek because she loved it so much, and after such a crazy day and such a crazy conversation, she really just needed to be reminded that Derek was right there and both of them were okay. His tongue entered her mouth and she let him in, just getting lost in him.

His hands were moving up and down her body, but never in any danger areas that he knew would alarm her. When he started to push her down onto the couch she let him, knowing that she didn't have anything to fear because Derek knew what she wanted and what she didn't. He twisted, carefully, making sure their lips never parted, unitl she was lying on his chest and he was underneath her. Chloe's hands went to his hair as Derek's mouth moved to her neck. God, she loved him, loved him so much...

Someone cleared their throat and they both jumped.

A quick glance up showed Chloe that Kit was no longer in the kitchen.

She quickly scrambled off Derek, and stood her face bright red as she waited for what Kit was going to say.

But poor Kit looked horrible. His face was pale and his eyes had shadows under them and Chloe suddenly felt extremely guilty for giving Kit something else to worry about, now he would be thinking that they were going around and having sex every other day, which they weren't. But Kit didn't know that. She was ashamed of herself and looked at her feet, waiting for the lecture that she was, no doubt, about to receive.

But instead of speaking in an angry tone, like Chloe expected, Kit's voice was quite, almost lifeless, "I trust you two not to do anything stupid." He said, and Chloe looked up at he haggard face, "Don't disobey my trust by telling me one day that Chloe is pregnant." Chloe blushed furiously and glanced at Derek who was also bright red, "I'm not deluded into thinking that nothing happens between the two of you," Chloe, unbelievably blushed even more, "But I have yet to say anything about it because I trust you not to do something you could regret. You two are both very intelligent, think about the consequences of your actions before acting upon them." Kit stopped talking, and Chloe glanced at him, so embarrassed that tears were almost in her eyes.

"I think it's time that you went to bed now." Kit said it in such a way, that even though he voice didn't rise or even get hard in tone, it was still an non-arguable order.

Chloe quickly climbed the stairs that led to her room, Derek right behind her. Once up them, they both stood in the hallway, not looking at each other, thinking about what just happened.

"That was..." Derek started, and trailed off, looking for the right word.

"Embarrassing." Chloe finished, looking at him.

He flashed her a quick smile, which caused her to smile back, and laugh a bit. Then they were both laughing quietly at what had just happened, not because it was funny but because they were still shaky and shocked at how much Kit trusted them.

"We should probably go to bed." Derek said, once the laughter had died down.

"Yeah..." Silently, without having to communicate it between them, they both decided that they wouldn't sleep in the same bed that night. It seemed like betrayal to do such a thing after Kit had told them how much he trusted them.

"I'll see you in the morning." Derek said, pulling her towards him, lifting her chin, and gently putting his lips to hers.

"'Night." She said as they broke apart.

"Yeah," Derek was looking at her a he slowly made his way down the hallway towards his and Simon's room, "'Night."

Chloe watched as he stopped at his door and then entered, then she turned the knob on her door and did the same. Once inside she closed the door and leaned up against it, sighing.

She was completely flattered at how much Kit trusted them, but still, she didn't like how calmly he took catching them making-out on the couch. It just didn't seem right. If _her _dad had caught them Derek would be dead and she would be on a plane half-way to a convent or military school or something. She wasn't used to being trusted so much, but she guessed that Kit knew her better than her dad ever had and ever would, and the more you knew someone the more you trusted them.

Kit knew her and Derek enough to assume they wouldn't do something stupid, the stupid act he was referring to being sex. And he was right. They weren't that stupid. Chloe and Derek had been together a few months short of a year, long enough for normal couples to have already completed the act of stupidity. Not that it was that stupid, but in their case it was. Chloe and Derek both knew, and had had a few conversations about it, that 'doing it' was a risk, a risk they weren't willing to take. Sure, there was protection, but nothing was a 100% full-proof. What if Chloe _did _get pregnant? What would happen to her, when both her and Derek were experimented on? What would happen to the baby? How were they supposed to stay safe and hidden and on-the-run with a baby on the way?

Too many risks and too many unknowns. Neither were willing to flirt with danger just to have a short period of joy. Chloe was more than willing to wait, willing to hold it off until things became more stable and the Edison group and other groups that posed as a risk to them were stopped, that way if the worst did happen, if Chloe did get pregnant, they wouldn't have to worry as much. And Derek didn't want to risk Chloe getting pregnant, therefore making her more liable to getting hurt if they were ever captured or found, so he was willing to wait. Basically Kit didn't have anything to worry about.

_Yep, _Chloe thought, _nothing to worry about but a possessed werewolf/necromancer being controlled by a demon with a taste for destruction heading straight for Vegas in the hopes of having a party of chaos after being trapped in a house in the middle of Kentucky for the past few centuries. Yep, no worries._

And with that thought, Chloe headed towards her bed and tried to sleep after such a stressful day.

**Soooooooooooooooo... Is is good, bad, really really bad? I don't know what to think of it. PLEASE REVIEW! LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**

**P.S. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the next chapter. I'm going to have to think of something so it could be a while. I'm not sure how long 'a while' is, sooooo... yeah.**

**Review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sooooooo yeah, I'm sorry. Really sorry. I know it's been a while since I have updated and I'm sorry. But I have excuses! T-there was... stuff! Yeah, stuff! It was school stuff! And band stuff! And quick recall stuff! And... and ... and... Okay, so bottom line was I had writer's block and I like to procrastinate on anything that doesn't have a deadline. Soooo... time got away from me and it took me forever to update, I'm sorry.**

**Moving on. So I started this chapter with no idea how to start it, no idea what I should have for the middle, but I did know what I was going to end it with. So I just started writing hoping that I would find a way to smoothly end up where I wanted it go. Well, it sort of did. I like the ending but I'm not sure about the beginning. So if the beginning of the chapter seems stupid to you, sorry, I just needed to get to the end and the beginning is just the blah I used to get there. So, the chapter is here so enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I ran out of funny and cleaver ways to say I don't own this story about a story and a half ago soooooo... I don't own the Darkest Powers series or its characters. **

***Warning*: Long chapter :D**

Chapter 9: Going Mad

Chloe didn't sleep too well that night. Maybe it was from the lack of Derek or maybe it was from what had happened to Jessa. Who knows, maybe it was both. But when she woke up the next morning, the sunlight just starting to peek into the bedroom window, she felt groggy and tired and completely unrested.

With a sight she rolled out of bed and changed and started making her way down to the kitchen for breakfast. Derek greeted her with a lope-sided smile and wrapped her in a hug, "How did you sleep?" He asked, kissing her gently on the forehead.

"Horrible." Chloe murmured into his chest, closing her eyes at his warmth.

"Me too," Derek said, his fingers finding her chin and tilting it up so he could softly kiss her lips, "C'mon," He said, pulling back and taking her hand in his, "food's ready."

Breakfast was good; it was always good because Kit always made it, though Jessa would sometimes help. Despite the good food a somber mood was hanging over the table thanks to the empty chair between Chloe and Simon.

"Oh, come on!" Jessa exclaimed from her perch atop the kitchen counter after a long painful period of silence, "Speak! Vocalize! Communicate!"

Chloe didn't comment on Jessa's outburst. Normally she wouldn't care about talking to a spirit in front of the others but it just felt rude to talk to Jessa while everyone was mourning her loss. Even though she wasn't really dead.

"So," Kit said once it seemed like everyone had eaten their fill, "We need to get Jessa back." Everyone nodded, "And the only way to do that is to find a way to get Nadinka out of Jessa's body." Kit sighed, "Unfortunately, I don't know how to do that, but I do have a friend who is also a necromancer." Chloe perked up at this, "Odds are he will know how to get Jessa's body back."

Everyone was quiet, taking in the proposed plan.

"Well," Jessa said, having moved to stand beside Simon, "I think it's the best bet we have and the only plan that could actually take us somewhere."

"I agree," Chloe said and everyone looked at her, "Jessa likes the idea and so do I. It seems like the only chance we have. We both say yes."

"Yes." Simon voted, his face tired and worn.

"Yes." Tori said firmly.

"Yes." Aunt Lauren said quietly.

"Yes." Derek said, wrapping his arm around Chloe's waist.

Kit nodded, looking at everyone, "I suggest you all pack, we might not be able to come back to this house after we are done with this whole ordeal. It's best to plan ahead and take our stuff with us."

Everyone stood from the table and started heading towards their rooms, ready to leave the place and start working on their plan to help Jessa, even though their plan was vague and smokey, at least they had one.

"Here," Tori appeared in the doorway of Chloe's and Jessa's room, "Let me help pack up Jessa's stuff."

"Okay," Chloe started pointing to things, "Jessa's dufflebag is in that closet and her clothes are in those drawers."

Tori nodded and walked into the room and silently started to pack up Jessa's stuff.

"So is Jessa in here right now?" Tori asked after a few moments of silence.

"No." Chloe replied, folding up some of her own shirts and placing them neatly in her bag, "I think she's with Simon right now. Just watching him."

"How's she taking everything?"

"Well," Chloe stared at the shirt that was in her hands, frowning, "At first she was really shaken, she was even crying, but she seems better now, more like her normal self. But I can't tell if she really is better or if it is all an act to make it seem like she's better so we don't worry about her."

"What do you think it is?" Tori asked, looking over her shoulder at her.

Chloe sighed, "I think it's a bit of both."

She continued to work on folding her clothes and placing them in her bag then once she was done with that she helped Tori with Jessa's clothes.

"Check all around the bed." Chloe told Tori when they were done with the clothes from the drawers, "She always leaves her clothes everywhere, which isn't a problem for her because she can sniff them out, but it poses a problem for us."

"Found a bra and some socks." Tori said throwing them on the bed.

Chloe was on the floor halfway under the bed looking for clothing items, "I found a shirt and I think there's a pair of shorts on your side by the head board."

"On it." Tori said from above, and Chloe saw her appear on the other side of the bed as she got on the floor, "Got 'em." Tori grabbed the shorts.

Chloe felt someone grab her feet and pull her out from under the bed. She shrieked and kicked at them, but stopped when she saw that it was Derek. "Oh. It's just you." She said, standing up and brushing the dust off that she had collected on her adventure under the bed.

"_Just _me?" Derek asked, offended.

"Well, I thought it was a kidnapper or a serial killer or a crazy scientist. But it was just you, which meant that it was completely anti-climatic and totally disappointing."

"Disappointing?"

"Well, yeah." Chloe was trying to hide a smile because she was just jesting with him, trying to have some fun, "In all the movies whenever a girl is pulled out from under a bed by her feet it's normally done by a kidnapper or someone about to hurt her and then a whole bunch of action starts. So when you grabbed my feet I was totally ready to scream and fight you and then, if you did manage to kidnap me, I would plot a way to escape you and save the day all in less than three hours. So, when I saw it was just you you can image my disappointment."

"You're right," Derek said seriously, "It must have been devastating."

"It was!" Chloe replied, wide-eyed, "It totallly ruined my day."

"Well I'm sorry," Derek said sencerly, "I will just to fix that now won't I?"

"Yes, you must!" Chloe replied, not really sure where the whole bit was going.

And then Derek was kissing her, his lips suddenly on hers, and for a moment she almost didn't know what to do due to shock. And then she was kissing him back her arms wrapping themselves around his neck as he pulled her closer to him. A peace that only Derek could bring settled over her, a peace that spread deeper and deeper through her being as Derek's lips continued to move against hers.

"OH MY GOD!" Tori yelled, "MY EYES! MY EYES! STOP THE PORN! MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE!"

Chloe jumped at Tori's outburst, knocked forcefully out of her peaceful cloud as her and Derek broke apart.

"What is wrong with you two!" Tori yelled at them, her eyes switching back and forth between them to glare at each of them, "You both knew I was in here! And yet you still decide to go and get all up on each other!"

Chloe was blushing, "It's not such a big deal, Tori." She said quietly.

"For you it isn't." Tori narrowed her eyes at her, "You were about to get some, of course _you _don't care. I, on the other hand, enjoy knowing that I can be in the same room with the two of you without having each of you throwing yourselves at each other as soon as I look away!" Chloe couldn't help but want to smile at how funny Tori's rant was, she had trouble holding it back, "It's not much to ask for!" Tori made and exasperated noise and stormed out of the room while mumbling under her breath.

Chloe stared at the open door that Tori had just stormed through for a moment before a laugh sputtered thorugh her lips. Then she was full out laughing, and Derek wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her to his chest and laughed with her. It felt good to laugh, it seemed like years since she had done so, even though it probably hadn't even been a day. But with the weight of Jessa's predicament on her mind (always on her mind, always reminding her that Jessa was in danger) a good laugh was welcome. It made the day better, gave it a promise of a brighter future. Of course the kiss helped too.

"Are you done packing?" Derek asked, once their fit of laughter was over.

"I'm done." Chloe said, looking around the room, "Tori and me were just trying to locate all of Jessa's stuff. I think I have everything..." She frowned.

"I'll help." Derek said squeezing her tight around the waist and kissing her lips. He let her go and faced the room, breathing in deeply, "There's something over here..." He walked over to the dresser, then reached behind it his hand groping in the inch of space that was in between the back of the dresser and the wall. "How did she even get anything back here?" He asked, his arm stretched to its limit.

"It's Jessa," Chloe clarified, "She can do anything."

"Of course I can do anything." Jessa said, walking into the room, "But what exactly am I doing now?"

"Getting clothes stuck behind the dresser." Chloe said.

Jessa smiled, "Yeah, I am pretty good at that. Though I can't remember what it was this time..." She frowned in thought.

"AH!" Derek jumped away from the dresser, a look of pure horror on his face. Chloe was about to ask what was wrong but then she saw a blue bra flying through the air from where Derek had let go of it after having brought it out from behind the dresser.

"That's where that went!" Jessa exclaimed excitedly, "I thought I left behind at the last house. What a relief it's here! That's my favorite one. Thank you, Derek!"

"Jessa says thank you." Chloe said, smiling at Derek who was wiping his hand on his jeans and staring at the bra, which was now lying on the ground, like it was the grossest thing he had ever seen.

"Well she needs to keep better track of her stuff so this doesn't ever have to happen again." He was still staring at the bra.

"It's just a bra." Jessa said, trying to pick it up, but failing to do so since she didn't have a body, "What's so bad about it?"

Chloe translated.

"It's your bra." Derek replied, "It's just.. weird."

"Aww... how cute!" Jessa said, smiling, "You're afraid of bras! I knew Derek wasn't as invincible as he seemed."

Derek glared at where he assumed Jessa was when Chloe translated, "I am _not _afraid of bras."

"It's okay," Jessa said earnestly, "We all have our own silly weaknesses. Mine's are all bugs with more than six legs."

Before Derek could reply, Kit notified them that they were leaving in ten minutes and they were all supposed to make a final sweep of the house to make sure they had everything.

And before they knew it, they were all packed into the van, in the exact same place where they were just days before. Once again everyone became conscious of Jessa's missing presence.

They were heading to the house of Kit's necromancer friend who live in a small town just a couple hours away. Chloe spent the down time catching up on her sleep which was surprisingly easy with the help of Derek's presence.

When they were just minutes away Kit spoke to them, "This friend of mine," He said, his eyes glancing at all of them in the review mirror, "He's a little... different. Just so you know ahead of time." Chloe frowned at this, not sure what that meant, but she didn't really care. She couldn't wait to meet the guy, couldn't wait to meet a trained necromancer that wasn't crazy and evil; couldn't wait to meet the guy that held the last hope as to how to get Jessa back.

"Are you sure he's still there?" Simon asked from the backseat of the van, "I mean, he didn't move, did he?"

"No." Kit said, "I'm quite confident he didn't move."

"Well that's good. The last thing we need is to come this far only to find out that this guy moved." Jessa said, suddenly appearing in the van next to Simon, scaring the crap of Chloe who jumped and yelped from surprise.

"What?" Derek asked, scanning their surroundings, instantly on alert.

"It was Jessa," Chloe breathed, clutching her heart and glaring at her friend, "You shouldn't do that." She told her.

"Oops." Jessa smiled, "But how exactly am I supposed to announce that I'm here? It's not like I can walk loudly or something."

"Good point." Chloe said, "Maybe cough quietly next time."

"Willl do."

They were at their destination in just minutes. Chloe stepped out of the van and faced a one story white house that she reasoned hadn't had a paint job for at least half a decade and was in serious need of one. Derek was scanning everything, using all of his senses to check for danger without actually moving since prowling around in a stranger's yard was rude.

Kit walked up the porch steps, the others all in tow, and knocked on the screen door.

Chloe heard someone shout from inside and the sound of something crashing followed by loud quick footsteps.

"Kit!" A man exclaimed, opening the door. The man was extremely thin and pale and if Chloe hadn't already known that he was a necromancer than she would have assumed that he was a vampire. He had a handful of scattered freckles on his face and balding short orange hair and didn't look much older than Kit. The man stepped eagerly onto the porch and shook Kit's hand roughly. "Oh, what a surprise!" He looked around at the others on the porch.

"And your boys!" The man looked at Simon and Derek, beaming, "Oh, it's been years since I've last seen you. Simon, you probably don't remember me, but it's hard to forget you. You were a little pest back then, but a cute boy, and look how you've grown!" Simon frowned, not really sure what to say to that. "And Derek! Why, you look like a full grown werewolf already! I remember when you were just a scrawny little lad! I used to work in the lab with your dad. I remember how the other three boys used to treat you, amazing that they ever managed to pick on you looking at you now. A shame what happened to them, but after that I left the group for good, of course I helped your dad get you out first, we couldn't just leave you there. You might actually remember me, Derek. Do you?"

Derek seemed to be a bit in shock at how much the guy seemed to know about him, but he frowned and thought, "I think I remember you." Derek said slowly, "You seem familiar."

"That's probably the werewolf in you," The man said happily, "I probably smell familiar to you too." Derek nodded slowly, "My name is Jon by the way, Jon Parker." He held out his hand to Derek who took it and shook.

"And Lauren it's nice to see you again." Jon said, turning to Aunt Lauren shaking her hand, "Good to see that you have finally left the Edison Group behind." Aunt Lauren blushed a bit at Jon's words.

"And who might this be?" Jon was studying Tori, "Back hair, prominent cheek bones, I believe this is Victoria Enright, am I correct?" Tori nodded and Jon smiled, "I used to help care for you when you came into the lab as a young child. You won't remember me, for that I am certain of, but I certainly remember you. You used to throw some fits that I believe made even your mother jealous. It's good to see you again, and away from that ghastly woman who is your mother." Chloe saw tears forming in Tori's eyes at the mention of her dead mother, but she was quickly blinking them back.

Jon was now turning to Chloe, "Well, look at who we have here." Jon's bright blue eyes were studying her, and Chlo couldn't help but notice that he didn't look quite stable, the way that he eyes were too wide and they way his eyebrows were pulled too far up, it just didn't make Jon look completely sane. And maybe he wasn't. "Chloe Saunders, the girl I always hoped I would meet." Jon stuck his hand out and took Chloe's hand in his and shook it vigorously. His skin was cold and felt really soft against hers.

"It's so nice to meet you, dear." He was still shaking her hand, "It's so nice. I was afraid that this would never happen, so so afraid." Was it just her or was he starting to sound a bit crazy? And was his hand starting to grip hers harder? "I worried that my life would end before we could meet, or that yours would, depending on how your powers affected you."

Jon's grip on her hand was starting to hurt hers. "You see, I was there when the Edison Group tested you. I told them, I told them over and over again that what they were doing to you wasn't going to help you, that your powers were only going to become more powerful, and they wouldn't listen." Jon's eyes were starting to look more and more crazed. What was wrong with him? "And so I feared how you would react to those powers, feared that you would be driven insane faster than the usual. You seem perfectly sane right now, my dear." Chloe's hand was really starting to hurt now. Jon had her hand gripped in his like a vice grip. She could feel the blood leaving her fingers. Scared, she started to softly tug her hand back from his, hoping he would take the hint, but he wouldn't let go. He just kept talking.

"Of course I also feared that I would be too lost in my own madness by the time I finally met you that I wouldn't be able to teach you what I wanted to. It's already started, you know," Jon said to her matter-of-factly, as if he was oblivious to the fact that Chloe was struggling to get her hand back from him, "the madness. I'm going mad, it started a few years ago. It's not like I didn't know it wasn't going to happen, I always knew it was coming."

Jon's nails were starting to dig themselves into her hand sending sparks of pain up her arm, "Please let go." She said quietly.

Jon ignored her, "It happens to all of us, the madness, and it will happen to you too. It came for me early, I used my powers too much, took my sanity for granted. It's not too far along, though, I'm sane most of the time but I have relapses every once in while, just seem to lose my mind sometimes. That's why Kit took so long to bring you here, why he didn't bring you here sooner to be trained by me. He's afraid I will lose my mind, afraid that you will get scared, afraid that you will be cowed by the future that awaits you, that awaits all necromancers."

"Ow!" She felt his nails draw blood as he gripped her hand even tighter and she started to fight earnestly, putting the strength of her whole body into it.

Jon's eyes lost all grain of sanity they ever held, "But what Kit doesn't know is that you already know. You already know that you are going to go mad one day. If someone hasn't told already then you would have figured it out on your own by now."

Derek was moving forward, grabbing her wrist gently and pulling along with her, trying to free her from Jon, but it wasn't working, Jon wouldn't let go and Derek couldn't use all of his strength without hurting Chloe.

"What Kit doesn't know is that it is better this way;" Jon was saying, not noticing that Derek and Chloe were struggling to get him to release her hand, "better to see what you are going to become than spending your life fearing the unknown. You'll accept, we all do, once you get over the shock of seeing it you will understand, you won't fear it anymore, just accept it."

"Hey, let go." Derek had his hand on Jon's wrist now, trying to get him to let go. Chloe was scared. Her heart was pounding and she could see the madness slowly taking over Jon's mind, slowly taking control of the man in front of her, slowly seeing what was going to happen to her as she grew older.

"It's better this way..." Jon was saying quietly, his eyes unfocused, staring at nothing, blank and emotionless, "Better for her, better for everyone..."

"Jon!" Kit was in front of his friend's face now, "Jon, let go of her!"

"Better this way, better this way, it's better, it's better..." Jon didn't seem to notice Kit. Blood was starting to drip down Chloe's arm and onto the porch, Chloe cried out as Jon's grip on her hand become even harder.

"Screw this." She heard Derek whisper, he took Jon's wrist in his hands and twisted. There was a loud _crack! _and Jon cried out and let go of her hand. Chloe stumbled backwards and would have fallen if it wasn't for Derek who caught her and pulled her into a hug.

She buried her head against his chest, scared and shaken at what Jon had done. She didn't care about her bleeding hand, that didn't matter, it would heal. No, what scared her the most was Jon showing her what she would become. He showed her the raving lunatic she would one day be, the person that was slowly forming inside with each passing day, the person that would slowly take over her sanity until she was nothing but a crazy person. Slowly taking her over until she wasn't even herself anymore, until she was just a crazy ghost of herself. That was her fate, no matter how much she fought it, that was what she would become, what all necromancers became.

She was going to become Jon one day, and that scared her more than anything she had ever faced because going mad wasn't like dying, no, going mad was slowly losing your grip on reality. Going mad was having to have your loved ones watch you as you slowly faded into nothing, as you slowly lost everything you ever were. Going made was like dying while still living. It was the worst fate she could ever think of and it was going to happen to her.

She was going mad.

**So yay! The chapter is finished! *loud and cheerful applause* Thank you, thank you, it was nothing, really. Hey! Who threw the roses in my face? They are ROSES! They're POINTY! Get better aim, idiot!**

***cough* Sorry, it just took me forever to finish this chapter and I thought I needed some fake applause and some roses thrown at me (in the face! Horrid aim!). So in case you hadn't noticed, Jon is a bit crazy. And I love him! I just made him up today and I already love him! That's true love right there. And he's a ginger! Who doesn't love gingers? Anyway, he's crazy (well sort of, he is mostly sane but has moments when his loses all his sanity) and that's why Kit took so long to decide to go there to get advice on how to save Jessa because he was afraid that Jon would 'go into one of his fits' (that's what Jon calls them. I love him!) and scare Chloe. But Kit risked it and in less than ten minutes Jon was in one of his fits, so you can bet Kit is feeling bad now cause Chloe is freaked out (obviously).**

**So what will happen now? Hmmm? Well I know and you don't, so HA!... Wait a sec, I was supposed to blackmail you... let me rephrase that... *clears throat* Review and I will post another chapter! Yay! Then you can find out what happens! **

**P.S. I'm on a sugar rush, I'm not normally like this. Well, actually I am, but I don't normally let that affect my author's notes. Sooooo... REVIEW! *whispers* Just click that little button right underneath this line. You know you want to. Click it... click it... click it... If you haven't clicked it by now you suck :P**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	10. Chapter 10

**Yay! I'm back! And I think I was pretty quick in writing this one seeing how it was a really hard chapter to write because so much internal stuff happens in it. I think I did a pretty good job at explaining what Chloe is feeling and stuff like that... you'll see.**

**Sooooooo... I honestly don't have much to say this time (darn, I love babbling), but you're more than welcome to go ahead and read the chatper. Guess what! It's chapter 10! As in TEN! ONE ZERO! I'm so proud of myself. I'm already in the double digits! I really don't know how long this story will be, my guess would be about as long as A Werewolf In The Making, which was 17 not counting the Author's Note at the end. It may be longer, it may be shorter, it would be really cool if it was the same length. Wow, I actually found a way to babble. Yay! No, seriously, I need to shut up and you need to read. So I'm stopping.**

**Disclaimer: Disclaimers do not count as babbling. It is simply a way to ensure that you understand that the Darkest Powers series belongs to Kelley Armstrong and not me, which ensures that Kelley does not sue me for false publication (or something like that), which ensures that I will not lose my laptop in the lawsuit. See? It's not babble. It's a legal contract!**

Chapter 10: Of Course

"It's fine, everything's okay." Derek was stroking her hair, hugging her to his chest, trying calm her down, make her feel better. But how do you make someone who is slowly going mad feel better? How?

It wasn't like she didn't already know. She knew, was given so many hints, was actually told that she was going to go mad. But it seemed so far away, seemed like a problem for someone else, like she didn't need to worry about it. But now she had seen Jon.

Her future seemed to be unfolding before her, revealing all its untold secrets, not that there was much to tell. She could see it now. She was going to go mad. That was her fate. She would spend the rest of her life on the run from people looking for her and she would die a mad crazy women.

If she would even make it to the age to be considered a woman. Jon himself had expressed his fear that she would succumb to the madness before the norm because of her heightened powers. Was that her fate? Was her already doomed life going to be made shorter just because scientists messed with her genes? Was she destined to die a young mad girl? How much time did she have left? How long before she started going mad? Was she already going crazy? How do know if you're crazy?

Chloe squeezed her eyes shut as tears started to leak out. She was scared. More scared than she had ever been before. She'd never really thought of the madness that was going to consume her; at least not in detail. But now, seeing Jon, it was unnerving. It was like gazing into a looking glass and seeing yourself in a few years time only to find out that in the future you don't exist. It was like seeing your own doom, your own death.

How do you recover from something like that? How do you bounce back? She just saw her whole life played out in the crazed man she had just met, and she didn't like what she saw.

Her uncle had jumped off a building. The uncle she didn't even know she had until her world started crashing down around her. The uncle who was also a necromancer. The uncle who killed himself at 19. Was she destined to repeat his fate? Or was hers going to be worse?

She felt herself crashing. Felt herself drowning in the sea of despair that she had stumbled into. She was going under, moving farther away from the surface, gasping for air that wasn't there, struggling to live when living was just a lost cause. She was done for. It didn't matter that her heart was beating. It didn't matter that she was, for the moment, sane. She was already dead. She was going to die by her own hand, driven mad by the ghosts she could see; or she would spend her last days mad, slowly wasting away. It didn't matter, she was dead. No matter how she lived her life from here on out, she was going to go mad and die. End of story.

"Chloe." It was Derek, breaking into her thoughts, pulling her out of her head. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes.

Derek's eyes were full of worry, full of more worry than she had even seen in them. He was worried about her, and he should be. She was going mad.

"Chloe." His voice was so soft, so caring. He wrapped his huge arms around her, squeezing her tight, resting his chin on her head. "It's going to be okay." He said, moving his lips to her ear, "Everything is going to be okay." What was wrong with him? She was going to go crazy, she was going to be what Jon was now, there was no changing that. How was that okay?

"Chloe." It was Jessa.

Turning her head sideways, Chloe managed to catch a glimpse of Jessa between Derek's arms.

"Chloe," Jessa said again, firmly "Chloe, don't you dare go off the deep end on me." Jessa was glaring at her, as if daring her to start going crazy or something.

"But I'm going to go crazy." She said quietly. Derek looked down at her curiously, but he seemed to sense that she wasn't talking to him so he didn't say anything.

"And so am I!" Jessa snapped at her, waving her hands in the air, "I'm a necromancer, too! I'm gonna to go mad one day, just like you!" Jessa was getting closer and closer to Chloe's face, her eyes narrowed. Chloe shrank back into Derek, Jessa could be really scary when she wanted to be, and she really wanted to be scary now.

"Don't you go running to Derek to protect you, Chloe!" Jessa's green eyes were on fire and burning right into hers, "He can't protect you from this. Only you can deal with it. We are the only ones who can save us. You can't hide behind Derek and hope that everything will be okay. You have to fight it!"

"But I'm not strong like you." Chloe said weakly, "I can't just brush it off like you can."

"Brush it off?" Jessa stared at her like she was stupid, "You think I can brush something like that off? I saw what happened to Jon, I was right there with you, I saw him lose his marbles right along with you. You think that didn't scared me?" Jessa asked, "You think I didn't see myself in Jon? You think I don't care that I'm going crazy? That I can brush something like that off?" Jessa made an exasperated noise and looked to the sky.

When she looked back at Chloe tears were in her eyes, and her gaze had soften to an almost pitiful look, "Chloe, you have to stop thinking like that. You have to stop thinking that I am perfect and nothing can hurt me, that I can face anything, because it's not true." Jessa gave a watery smile, "I mean look at me, my spirit was kicked out of my body, the only one who can hear me is you, I can't even talk to my boyfriend and tell him that I love him because I don't have a body to do so." Tears were flowing out of both Jessa's and Chloe's eyes.

"I'm scared, Chloe." Jessa said quietly, "I'm so scared right now. I'm scared that I won't ever get my body back. I'm scared Simon will never hear me speak again. I'm scared that I will have to spend the rest of eternity watching as you guys grow up and move on and I will be left behind; that Simon will leave me behind. I'm not invincible, Chloe."

Jessa's voice was so soft, so flowing, "I'm scared that I will go crazy one day. I'm scared that one day I will get caught off guard by a ghost or a residual and be driven mad. I think about it at night sometimes, when everyone is asleep and I have no one to convince me otherwise. I think about it and it swirls around in my head, twisting my thoughts, until I finally start to believe that I am mad, that I have already gone crazy." Jessa smiled at her, "And whenever I start thinking that, I tell myself 'No, I'm not crazy, and I don't have to worry about being overwhelmed by ghosts because I have Chloe. She'll help keep me sane.' And then I can fall asleep because I know it's true."

"Look, Chloe," Jessa said, her voice getting harder, "You're strong, even if you don't think so yourself. I've seen it in you, you can handle anything, I know you can. And you can handle this, you can handle going mad, you know why? Because I'm here." Jessa smiled, "The way I see it, the only way we're going to stay sane as long as possible is to help each other, like we did in the hotel a few days ago. That really freaked me out, I'm not going to lie, but I had Simon and I had you and with your help I could fight what I saw and after that everything was okay. You have Derek and you have me and everyone else, you have us and since you have us you have hope. We both have hope. Because I know right now you're giving up, you're thinking your life is over. But it isn't."

Jessa motioned to Derek, "You have Derek, you two are perfect together, your life is just starting, it's not over yet. If you start dwelling on the fact that you're going to go mad then it will come faster because you're not fighting it, you're not trying to stay in our world, you're not trying to stay sane. And since you're not trying to stay sane then you're not _going _to stay sane. And you have pently of reasons to stay sane; I mean look at this hot hunk of werewolf," Jessa slapped Derek on the shoulder, her hand going through him, but Chloe laughed quietly anyway, "you wouldn't want to just give up on him, do ya? 'Cause he would never give up on you. Why? Because he loves you. Because you do crazy, unbelievable things for those you love."

"So, Chloe," Jessa was smiling now, "Would you, out of love, try your hardest to stay sane for me and Derek and Simon and Tori and Kit and your aunt?"

"Only if you promise to do the same for me." Chloe said quietly, smiling slightly.

"I promise." Jessa said.

Chloe buried her head in Derek's chest, trying to compose her thoughts, to compose herself. What Jessa said was true, if she dwelled on going mad, then it would only make her go mad quicker. And it wasn't like she couldn't live a full life. Margret, the evil women who trained her briefly, was rather old and she seemed sane (until she went and murdered everyone, but Chloe didn't think that was associated with being a necromancer), and Jon himself admitted that he had used his powers too much when he was younger. For all Chloe knew, she had decades before she started going mad, so she had better live them.

Jessa was right, she had to fight the madness, fight it to stay with Derek, who she loved, so she could stay with her friends. She could do it. How many times had she freaked out from seeing a ghost and her friends were there to help her feel better? How many times had Derek gotten angry at her for trying to deal with the ghosts on her own? Her friends wanted to help, and this was one thing that she couldn't handle on her own, so she should let them help her. With their help, maybe she could stay sane longer, maybe she wouldn't lose as much of herself to the madness once it caught up to her.

"Chloe." It was Derek, he still sounded worried. He didn't know about the epiphany she just had, didn't know that her fears were, for now, pushed aside. He reached down with his hand and pulled her chin up to look at him. "Chloe you know I would never let anything happen to you." His eyes were completely honest, staring deep into her own, "You know that I will always be there for you, to help you fight off things that you can't handle. You know that you can come to me if you're scared or worried and I will help you. You know all that right?" Derek was searching her eyes, "You know I will help you, right? You don't have to worry about what I will say, okay? If you're scared or worried come to me. If I freak out and get mad at you, that's okay, you don't have to worry about that, because I will get over it. I always do."

"Chloe," Derek's eyes softened and he moved his head close to hers, "I love you. I don't want anything to happen to you and I don't want you to have to deal with stuff like this all by yourself. You can tell me anything, and if I get mad, I'm sorry, but know that I like it better when I know what's going on. I'd rather you told me and I get mad than you not telling me at all, because I want to help. Yesterday, when you got that weird feeling before we entered the house, you should have told me. I want to know things like that."

Chloe couldn't help but think that they had had this talk so many times before, except before Derek was always angry with her for not telling her something. But now it was different. He was telling her to come to him about anything, and it wasn't like Chloe didn't already know she could do that, but now he was telling her that she didn't have to worry about him freaking out. That he cared and if he did freak out, it was because he loved her and that he was worried about her.

And he was right. The weird feeling she and Jessa got yesterday before entering the house was something she should have told him, something that she should have suspected meant something bad. And if she had told him then maybe, just maybe, Jessa would never had been possessed. And everything would be alright.

"I know, Derek." Chloe said softly, "I'll start trying to tell you things more often."

"Good." Derek wrapped his arms securely around her and kissed her forehead, "I love you Chloe and I want to help you and I can't help you if you think I will get mad and you don't tell me. And even if I do get mad-"

"It's because you love me." Chloe finished.

"Yeah," Derek smiled down at her, "Because I love you." He gently placed his lips on hers.

"Chloe?" Kit's hesitant voice interrupted her and Derek's moment.

Pulling back from Derek and turning to Kit, Chloe noticed that Jon was standing on the far side of the porch, about as far away from her as he could get, and he was staring at her, not in a creepy way, but in an observant way, no longer babbling.

"We can leave if you want to," Kit said, his face looking so sad, "I was afraid something like this would happen, and I'm sorry. We should have never of came here. We can leave now, we can do research, we'll find a way to save Jessa, we don't have to stay."

"No," Chloe said firmly, surprising Kit, "Jessa needs our help and this might be the only way to get the answers we need. I'll be fine." And to be honest, she already was fine, or at least for the moment she was. It was like Chloe was in a weird calm, a calm only reached after having a big shock and breaking down only to be put yourself together again quickly. She couldn't understand it, but her mind was suddenly so much clearer than it had been ever since Jessa's incident.

"Chloe's right," It was Jon, he was aproaching them, all traces of his insanity from minutes before was gone and he seemed like any other normal human being, "I do have the answers you are looking for. I know how to save your friend."

"How-?" Kit started, frowning.

"Do I know what answers you guys are looking for?" Jon finished asking for him, "I noticed the spirit of the girl right here." He motioned to Jessa, "I'm Jon by the way, and who might you be?"

"Jessa." Jessa answered, studying Jon.

"It's nice to meet you, Jessa." Jon nodded to her in greeting, then turned back to Kit. "I heard Jessa say something about the possibility of never growing up and never being able to talk to her boyfriend again, who is Simon. So it's obvious that she either died recently and you all are trying to bring her back to life, which everyone knows is impossible because she would just come back as a zombie and it just wouldn't be the same; or that her body was possessed and you need to figure out how to get her spirit back into her body which would makes more sense than the first option and would explain why you came to me looking for answers."

"So you know how to get her back?" Simon asked, hope in his eyes, though his voice didn't betray it.

"Of course I do." Jon said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world, "You just have to kill Jessa's body."

**BUH BUH BUH BUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMM!**

**So. Is Jon just crazy? Do they really have to kill Jessa? Is there no way to save her? Will all this be for nothing? Can armadillos really swim? All these questions and more will be answered in the next chapter if you review!**

**Which reminds me! I would like to thank everyone who reviewed! I got 10 whole reviews! I've never had that many reviews before for just one chapter! (Well maybe I have. To be honest I have never counted before). Anyway, I love you all so much and if it wasn't for all of you who reviewed this chapter it probably wouldn't be written for another week. So you know what that means? If you want more faster, REVIEW! **

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	11. Chapter 11

**YAY! The next chapter is up! Just so you know I spent all day writing this (and I'm serious when I say this because, due to the over-load of snow, I have not had any school for the past for days. Yay!) and I hope you are happy with it. I'm not going to lie, this chapter doesn't include much inside conflict (sorry, but I'm internal conflicted out after the last chapter) but it does finally reveal the plan in as simple a way as possible.**

**And when I say 'simple' I mean 'as non-confusing as I can get it'. And personally I think I did a pretty good job, but if you are confused, just as your question in a review or PM me.**

**PS: If any of you have already read this and found it awesome enough to read it again, I would like to let you know that I had totally forgot that Derek had broken Jon's wrist two chapters ago and Lulubelle09 was nice enough to remind me in the review (YAY REVIEWS!) so I rewrote a few parts and now Jon has a broken wrist! YAY!**

**Disclaimer: I'm sorry to disappoint, but I am not Kelley Armstrong in disguise, therefore I do not own Darkest Powers. If I led you into thinking otherwise... oops.**

_**Previously:**_

_**"**So you know how to get her back?" Simon asked, hope in his eyes, though his voice didn't betray it._

_"Of course I do." Jon said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world, "You just have to kill Jessa's body."_

Chapter 11: The Plan (Dramatic Music)

The silence after what Jon said was impenetrable. Chloe stared at him, her earlier thoughts of him coming out of his madness attack were suddenly extremely doubtful. If they killed Jessa's body then Jessa would never be able to inhabit it again, that was exactly what they didn't want to happen.

"Maybe I'm a bit slow," Tori said slowly from beside Simon, "but wouldn't that be counter productive?"

Chloe almost smiled at how Tori worded it, but she couldn't, because it was obvious that Jon didn't know how to save Jessa, and coming here was just a waste of time and emotional stress.

"I'm going to have to agree with Tori," Jessa said, frowning, "I don't want to die. Then I would be stuck in the spirit world forever."

"You misunderstood me." Jon said calmly, smiling at Jessa, "Please, come inside so I can explain." He walked to the screen door and held it open for them.

No one wanted to be the first to go inside. Chloe could see the skepticism on Kit's and Aunt Lauren's faces, could see that they weren't sure if they should go inside and hear Jon's explanation or if they should just cut their losses and leave now. She could tell that everyone else was waiting to see what the others were going to do, not wanting to be the one to decide. Steeling herself, Chloe pursed her lips and walked past Jon and into the house.

The first thing she noticed about the place was that it was unbelievably clean, as if someone who lived there had OCD when it came to cleaning. The hardwood floors were shining and squeaky clean, the living room was in perfect order, so neat that Chloe wondered if it modeled for furniture magazines.

The next thing she noticed was that there was a kiddie pool in the middle of the living room. She didn't really know what to think of that.

She felt Derek come up behind her, standing close enough for her to feel his body heat. She knew he was staring at the pool just like she was, adding this weird appearance to his already bad perception of Jon.

"Chloe." It was Jon, and she turned away from the pool to see him. He was holding the arm the Derek had broken the wrist of close to his chest. "I would like to apologize about what happened earlier." He did look sorry, and sane, or at least for the moment he did. In the back of her mind Chloe wondered how long it would be until he lost control of himself again. She hoped that she wouldn't be around for it.

"I unpredictably lose my mind sometimes." Jon said softly, like he was talking to a scared child, as if trying to calm her, "I didn't mean to hurt you," He motioned to her hand that she had held against her chest which was bleeding from when he had dug his nails into her skin. "And Derek," He turned to Derek, "I would like to thank you for breaking my wrist so I would let go of Chloe. I'm sorry that it had to come to that when I go into fits like that I can't rationally control my mind." Derek just nodded, not saying anything.

"Come on Chloe we can fix you up in the kitchen, follow me." Jon turned and led them down a hallway which led to the kitchen.

Chloe gasped when she entered the room. There was a round wooden table sitting on one side of the kitchen and above it hung the corpse of a man slowly swaying back and forth. His face was puffy and a purplish blue, his tongue hanging out of his dead mouth, his eyes closed. She looked away quickly but the image continued to make her stomach churn horribly.

"Sorry!" Jon apologized quickly, "I'm not used to people being able to see him, I forgot to warn you."

"Oh, that's gross." Jessa said, disgust in her voice.

"What is it?" Derek asked, looking at her worriedly.

"Um," How exactly do you explain something like this? "There's a dead man hanging from the ceiling." She said in a quiet voice.

A look of disgust settled on Derek's face, then he took hold of her uninjured hand, intertwining his fingers with hers, motioning to the table.

"Ugh." Chloe looked at Jessa, who was examining the corpse, "How do you eat with something like this in your kitchen?" Jessa asked Jon.

"You get used to it after a while." Jon said, riffling through the wooden cabinets on the wall. "I grew up in this house. I was one of those necromancers that was born into a family of normal humans. I didn't start seeing ghosts until I was 13. Needless to say, I was shocked when I came down for breakfast one day and saw Robert hanging there."

"Robert?" Jessa asked, glancing at Jon, confused.

"His name's Robert. Or was Robert. However you like it. He killed himself about 80 years ago. He's just a residual now." Jon turned and placed a medical looking box on the kitchen counter top and waved Aunt Lauren and Chloe over to him, "When I first saw him, my parents thought I was going crazy. Once I realized that I would committed if I continued to say that I saw a dead guy in the kitchen, I stopped. So I had to act like Robert wasn't there, so I'm used to him. And I love this house, I don't think I could ever leave it. Can you fix this Lauren?"

"Yes, Jon, I am a doctor. Go run your hand under the sink, Chloe." Aunt Lauren said quietly. Chloe did just that, cleaning her bleeding cuts that Jon's nails had made.

While Chloe did that Aunt Lauren examined Jon's broken wrist, "I'll put a splint on it." She murmured and Jon nodded. Chloe watched as Aunt Lauren straightened and tied Jon's wrist to a ruler (the only straight object they could find that wasn't a knife).

While Jon was fixed up and medicated for the pain, Aunt Lauren moved on to Chloe, bandaging her hand. When Jon was done bandaging them, Chloe had come to like him more, he liked to talked and he was very interesting.

"You have a pet armadillo?" Tori asked, her eyes wide, "No way!"

"Of course," Jon said, "why do you think I have a pool in my living room?"

Chloe knew in everyone's head the words _because you're crazy _were flashing in bright neon lights, but no one spoke them out loud.

"It's for Sandy," Jon said, standing up to put the medical supplies back where he has gotten them, "she loves to play in it."

"Armadillos swim?" Jessa and Simon asked at the same time.

"No," Jon answered, turning to sit at the kitchen counter, "they can walk under water. Sandy loves it. I usually keep the pool outside, close to her sandbox, but it's too cold for her to go outside this time of the year, so it's in my living room for now."

Huh. Chloe supposed that explained the pool. Interesting.

"Can we get back to explaining your plan part?" Derek asked, and Chloe knew that he really didn't like Jon. Poor Jon, he seemed so nice. When he wasn't crazy, at least.

"Why yes!" Jon' eyes lit up, and everyone suddenly had their full attention on him.

"So in order to understand the plan there are a few things about the spirit world that you have to know." Jon stood and started to pace behind the counter that Chloe was sitting at.

"Demons never die," Jon said, "they exist forever in their own alternate universe. But when a demon possesses a human body and the body that they are possessing dies, then they also die, and they go to the spirit world where all supernatural souls go."

"Now, this rarely happens." Jon continued, "A demon can quickly escape the body it's possessing and escape to another body. The only time that a demon can't do so is when they spend years in a body and they are so connected and fused to that body that they can't escape."

"But Jessa has only been possessed for a day or so," Derek said, "you said it took years for this to happen. And how does killing Jessa's body help anything if Jessa can't get back into it because she's dead?"

"Let me explain." Jon said calmly, holding up his hands.

Derek pursed his lips and Chloe squeezed his hand, trying to get him to settle down a little, which was going to be hard because he really didn't like Jon. But she didn't blame him, Derek wouldn't be able to forgive the fact that Jon had hurt her and that he had gone crazy in front of her, scaring her.

"Derek is right," Jon said, motioning to Derek, "Jessa's body has only been possessed by this demon for barely a day, not nearly long enough for the demon to fuse with the body."

"Thank God," Jessa murmured, "the last thing I want is for her to be fused to me."

Jon ignored her, "But this demon was also condemned to spend five centuries in that house, her only escape being a necromancer that she could possess."

"Wait," Derek interrupted again, "how do you know that? We didn't even tell you about that."

"Oh," Jon smiled. "It's a long story. But let's say I knew that Nadinka was sentenced to that house." Jon continued, "So this demon, also known as Nadinka, that has possessed Jessa was sentenced to spend five centuries in the house you guys went into. She went for Jessa and then-"

"Actually," it was Jessa who interrupted this time, "Nadinka went for Chloe first, but Chloe fought her off and then she went for me."

Jon raised an eyebrow and looked at Chloe quizzically, "Really?" He sounded impressed, Chloe didn't really care, "Well this could work towards the plan..." She heard Jon murmur.

"The plan being?" Simon prompted him.

"Right!" Jon exclaimed, "So many interruptions... Anyhow this demon possessed Jessa and left. As you know Nadinka could only possess a necromancer to escape the house, my guess is that still applies even though Nadinka is no longer in the house."

"You think that she can only possess necromancers?" Derek asked, despite his dislike for the guy, Chloe knew Derek's curiosity was peaked by the idea of trying to solve a puzzle.

Jon smiled, "Yes, and not only that but I also think she can't leave Jessa's body unless she immediately goes into another necromancer's body."

"So she's stuck in Jessa's body unless another necromancer is around with a body she can possess." Derek summed up.

"That's what I think." Jon carefully, "I'm not for sure, but that would make the most sense."

"Since Nadinka can't leave Jessa's body unless another necromancer is around," Derek said, frowning, "if we kill Jessa's body then we-"

"Kill Nadinka." Jon finished, "Exactly."

"But if we kill my body then I'm dead." Jessa said bluntly.

"If we kill Jessa's body then she's dead." Simon said, unable to hear what Jessa had just mentioned.

"Then we just bring her back to life." Chloe murmured quietly, and everyone looked at her, Jon beaming, "Demons are part of the spirit world, they don't have a body to revive them, so once they're dead, nothing can bring them back. But Jessa has a body, and if we kill her, we have a chance of bringing her back, demon free."

"Yes!" Jon cried happily, "Exactly! We kill Jessa's body, rid ourselves of that pesky demon, and then we bring Jessa back to life."

"But how are we supposed to kill Jessa in such a way that she will come back?" Kit asked, finally getting into the conversation.

"Electric shock would be the best way," Aunt Lauren murmured thoughtfully, "it's easily reversible. Though how we are supposed to shock a demon without letting her onto our plan I will never know."

"And what if we can't bring Jessa back?" Simon asked.

"Yeah," Jessa chimed in, "I would like to be brought back."

"If we have a necromancer around when we kill Jessa," Jon said, "Then Jessa will most definitely be able to come back. A necromancer can persuade any spirit back into their body as long as they haven't been dead very long and their body isn't mutilated too badly."

"But if we have you or Chloe nearby," Derek said, "then Nadinka could leave Jessa's body and try and possess one of you two. And that's only if we can manage to get to her and kill Jessa. The chances of Nadinka noticing one of us and figuring out our plan is extremely high."

"Plus she has werewolf strength." Jessa cut in, "And her little demon powers."

"Werewolf strength?" Jon frowned at Jessa, "I thought you were a necromancer?"

"Only partly." Jessa said, sighing, "I was in an experiment as a kid; I'm part werewolf part necro. I'm special." She smiled grimly.

"So this complicates things..." Jon murmured, his brow furrowed, thinking. "The chances of Nadinka figuring out the plan is high... if she does figure it out she has super strength and demon powers... if there isn't a necromancer around then the chances of Jessa dying is high... if there _is_a necromancer around then Nadinka will possess them once we try to kill Jessa, then we would be forced to kill the other necromancer..."

Derek shook his head, "There are too many variables." He snapped angrily, "If we try and kill Jessa's body the chances of things going wrong are too great. We can't control how Nadinka will react."

Jon nodded, his eyes gazing off far away as he thought, "Yes," he murmured, "we can't let anyone else get hurt and the chances of that happening are too great... Unless..." Jon frowned a new thought popping in his head, "It would eliminated a few dangers... make her more controllable... it could work..."

"What would work?" Chloe asked.

Jon smiled at her, "What we want is to be able to control Nadinka's actions, right?"

"Yeah," Derek said, "That way we can make sure she doesn't fight back and hurt one of us or some bystander."

"What if we can do that?" Jon asked carefully.

"Well then it would make the plan more promising and more reliable and less up to chance." Derek commented simply. "But how could we do that?"

"It's quite simple, really," Jon mused, "I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. It would've been so easy to-"

"Jon!" Jessa snapped, "The plan!"

"Right!" Jon smiled, "We get Nadinka to go into Chloe's body, Chloe will be able to control Nadinka with super necro powers, and then we kill Chloe."

**And then Derek kills the guy. The end.**

**HA! Sorry, but I just had to do that. I couldn't resist. Sooooooooo? Confused? I hope not. I thought I explained it pretty well. But if I didn't, I'm sorry. If you have questions, just ask in the review that you WILL LEAVE! And if you forgot to mention your question in the review that you WILL LEAVE you can PM me. And people, if you do ask a question in the review that you WILL LEAVE, please log in because I can't answer your question if I can't send a message to you.**

**So, please review!**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey, yeah, I'm a bit late in posting. Oops. But I was busy reading _The Ranger's Apprentice _series fanfics and then the actual series because I realized how much I love that series and had to reread it. I'm halfway through. Anyway, I'm off school today (again) due to snow (again) and I finished this just for you guys. THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! I LOVE YOU ALL!**

**And now on with the chapter. I think this chapter could be my favorite... but I don't know why. Wait, I do know why! But you don't know why, at least not yet. I tried my best to keep Derek in character, but he might be a little OOC, or a lot a bit OOC, I suppose it depends on how you view Derek as a character. I don't know... you should probably read this now...**

**Disclaimer: Alas! Despite my utter love for the Darkest Powers I am not the actual owner of the series, which saddens my heart greatly.**

**_Previously:_**

_"Jon!" Jessa snapped, "The plan!"_

_"Right!" Jon smiled, "We get Nadinka to go into Chloe's body, Chloe will be able to control Nadinka with super necro powers, and then we kill Chloe."_

Chapter 12: Woeful Love

"No." Derek said, not even a half second after Jon had spoke.

But Chloe could see where Jon was going, could see that it was the best, and possibly only, way to get Jessa back. "But Derek-" She began.

"No!" He turned to her, his voice set hard, his eyes burning, and for a second she was too afraid to say anything else, but then she pushed past that.

"It's the best way." She said, trying to get what she wanted to say out because she knew Derek was going to cut her off.

"No, it's not. So stopping thinking about it. It's not going to happen." Derek shot a glare at Jon, who looked quite startled by the harsh look.

"Derek," Chloe sighed, but didn't get any farther.

"He's right, it's not going to happen, Chloe." It was Aunt Lauren who spoke this time.

"What?" Her voice shot up an octave as she turned to her aunt. She could understand Derek telling her 'no', she knew he was profusely over-protective of her, but _Aunt Lauren_! No. Her aunt held no authority over her, not anymore, not after all the lies and the secrecy.

"It's not going to happen, Chloe, end of story." Her aunt said it like it was the end of the argument. Oh, was she wrong.

"You can't tell me what to do!" Chloe snapped. She will admit, it was harsh, but the relationship between her and her aunt had been shaky ever since Chloe had started seeing ghosts. There had been a distance between the two of them ever since then, one that neither of them have been willing to close. Now, suddenly, out of nowhere, her aunt wanted to boss her around? She was not going to let that happen.

"If you think for one second that I'm going to let you get yourself killed-!" Her aunt began.

"I'll come back!" Chloe threw her hands up, "I'm not going to stay dead!"

"It doesn't matter." Aunt Lauren said firmly, "It's not going to happen."

"She's right." Derek agreed.

Chloe could not believe it, for the first time ever Derek and her aunt were on the same side, and it was not the side that Chloe wanted them to be on.

Chloe glared at them both. They were so stupid! So stupid to believe that they could control her; so stupid to not see that this was the only to save Jessa! It's not like she wasn't going to come back! She would only be dead for a moment!

She looked at Kit, Simon, and Tori, trying to get them to back her up.

"Derek," Simon started quietly, but was cut off by his brother.

"No." Derek turned his glare on his brother, "I'm not going to risk Chloe's life. It's not going to happen."

"Then how are we going to get Jessa back?" Simon shouted, sparking the tension that had settled in the room.

"We go with the original plan." Derek replied gruffly, "We somehow send an electrical shock up Jessa's body and then we revive her."

"Oh, so my girlfriend is allowed to die but yours isn't?" Simon snapped.

"It's different!" Derek took a step closer to his brother, "Jessa's a werewolf! She has a better chance of surviving."

"Oh, I'm sure that's the only reason." Simon's eyes were blazing as he too took a step that closed that gap between him and Derek. "Just say it, Derek, you're willing to take the risk with Jessa's life and not Chloe's, after all, she's not _your_ girlfriend."

"Whoa!" Jessa was staring at the two boys, wide-eyed, "The testosterone levels in this room just skyrocketed. I don't like this." Chloe agreed with her.

"Derek-" She started, but he didn't even hear her.

"I never said that!" Derek took another step closer to his brother, glaring down at Simon.

"You didn't have to; it's obvious that's what you're thinking!" Simon's face was turning red with anger.

"Simon-" If Chloe could just get one of them to stop then maybe they could calmly work out their differences.

It was an extremely hopful thought.

"What are you implying, Simon?" Derek growled at his brother.

"Simon," Jessa was standing beside her boyfriend, "I want you to think carefully about what you are going to say, and then don't say it!"

Of course Simon couldn't hear her advice and said _exactly _what he was thinking. "I'm implying that you think that Chloe's life is worth more than Jessa's, and I have to disagree."

Jessa tried to smack her boyfriend in the face because of his stupidity. It didn't work.

"Derek-" Chloe tried to stop it again. She moved to get in between them, but she wasn't quick enough, not that she thought that could have stopped them.

"You're right! I do think that!" Derek shouted, "Chloe does mean more to me than Jessa!"

"Great!" Simon replied just as loudly, "Now we can just go kill Jessa then and if she dies for good at least you can say 'hey, that's okay as long as it's not _my _girlfriend'!"

"So you want me to just have Chloe killed?" Derek shouted.

"And you want me to just watch as you decide to kill my girlfriend?" Simon countered.

"She has a better chance of surviving!" Derek yelled.

Jessa winced, "Wrong answer Derek."

And her statement was punctuated by the punch that Simon was throwing at him.

But it never reached Derek. Instead Simon's fist hit an invisible barrier halfway to Derek's face and bounced back. Surprised, Simon looked around, and his eyes landed on his angry father.

"Simon, back up! Derek, back up!" Kit's voice was as harsh as a whip, and both boys obeyed quickly, both backpedaling a few feet.

Kit removed that barrier that he had erected and stood in between the two boys. "What is wrong with you two?" He looked angrily at both of them, and despite that fact that their dad was a great deal smaller than them, both boys were suddenly scared. "Fighting like children! Fighting as if you weren't the boys I have raised you to be! I expect better from both of you!"

Both boys were staring down at their feet, suddenly ashamed of themselves.

Kit turned to Derek, "Just because you don't like the thought of Chloe being involved in the plan doesn't mean you can turn a blind eye on the idea and say that it won't happen without thinking it through. And don't be so cruel to your brother about it either, because he's afraid he's going to lose Jessa just like how you're afraid you might lose Chloe."

"And you," he turned to look at Simon, "just because you're worried about Jessa that doesn't mean you can talk to your brother like that. He's worried about Chloe, just like you're worried about Jessa."

He glared at both of them again, "You know exactly what I think about fighting; you know exactly how dangerous it can be if you two come to blows, and I can't believe the things you two said to each other. Apologize now!"

The anger between the two brothers that had flared up so quickly was gone just as fast and both boys seemed shamed by the words that they had just shared.

Sighing, Simon spoke first, "I'm sorry, Derek, I was just mad."

"I'm sorry, too." Derek said glumly.

"Good." Kit said gruffly, "Now shake hands."

The boys obeyed, stepping forward and grasping each others hands.

Kit nodded, "Now, I want everyone to leave this room and think over the plans that were discussed and fume down before we decide on a plan of action, understood?" Everyone nodded, and the tension that was in the room was suddenly released.

"Derek-" Chloe started, but he just held up his hand wearily, his eyes begging her not to say anything, but she pushed on, "We need to talk."

Sighing, Derek ran a hand through his hair, "Fine, but not in here."

Chloe agreed quietly, following him as he walked back outside onto the front porch.

Once the door was shut behind them, Chloe started again, "Derek, you-" but she stopped because he turned to look at her and he eyes seemed to hold the deepest pain, and that look caused her words to stop.

"You want to do it, don't you?" Derek asked her quietly.

"Do what?" She asked, startled by the immense sadness that seemed to radiate off of him.

"Get yourself killed."

Chloe hesitated a moment, not really sure how to reply. "It's the best plan we have." She ended up saying quietly.

"I don't like it." He had turned his back to her and was now facing Jon's yard and the woods that surrounded it.

"To be honest, I don't like it much either." She said with a tiny smile, "but I have to do it."

"No you don't." He said quietly.

There was something about the way that he was reacting that worried Chloe. He was taking this whole conversation way too calmly. She knew Derek, she knew that the possibility of her death was killing him, but for some reason he wasn't blowing up about it, wasn't fighting it like he normally would. It just didn't seem right.

"Derek?" She took a step closer to him, putting her hand on his arm, "Are you okay?"

She saw him frown, his eyes still on the landscape around them, "I said some really bad things to Simon." He murmured.

Chloe sighed internally, so that's why he was acting so weird. "You didn't mean it." She said, "You two were just mad at each other."

"No," Derek said, "I did mean it, and that's the problem. I meant what I said. I do think you're worth more to me than Jessa is, and that's what scares me."

Chloe waited for him to explain, but when he didn't she prompted him, "I don't understand." She said quietly.

He glanced down at her for a brief moment before going back to scanning everything around them. "Jessa's the only other werewolf I know, and because of this I thought I would never let anything happen to her. She's like a sister to me, and she's with Simon, and she helps me to protect all of you, and so I always thought that if something ever happened to her then I would save her."

He was frowning now, "And suddenly she's in trouble and the best way to get her back involves putting your life at risk." He paused, and Chloe took his hand in hers, he responded by lacing his fingers with hers, his eyes still out in the distance, "And even though I know that getting you involved would be the safest way for everyone, I just can't do it because I can't let you get hurt."

He paused, and Chloe didn't say anything because she knew that he wasn't done.

"I'm worried," he said slowly, "that if I'm not willing to let you get hurt now, what will I do if something were to happen to Simon or my dad? What if one of them were in trouble and I decide not to help them because it involves you getting in danger? What if I decide not to go with the best plan because I'm worried about you? Will I let them get hurt?"

He looked down at her, conflicting emotions in his eyes, "I love you Chloe, I love you so much, but I love them too. And I'm scared that I could put them at risk by trying to keep you out of danger."

Chloe took a moment to organize her thoughts before she spoke, "I love you too, Derek." She said, squeezing his hand, "But you should know that you are really protective, and you don't have to be." She smiled a small smile, "I'm not child, Derek, I can keep myself out of danger. Granted, I have had some close calls, but those were stupid mistakes and not entirely my fault. But I've held my own against ghosts, zombies, werewolves, demons, witches and whatever else I've been up against."

"You don't have to worry about me." She told him, "If you worry about me and try to protect me you let your emotions cloud your better judgement. You could end up doing more harm than good."

"But I can't let you get hurt." Derek said.

"Sometimes you have to do things you don't want." She said, "It's better for everyone if I'm the one we kill than if it's Jessa. I can control Nadinka once she's inside of me, I can make sure that she doesn't hurt anyone. If we kill Jessa then there's a chance that your dad or Simon or Aunt Lauren or even Jessa could get hurt. If you look at the two plans you know which one you should choose." It felt so weird to be talking about her own death.

"But you could die." He said.

"That's the whole point, Derek." She said sarcastically, "I have to die in order to get rid of Nadinka, but Jessa will be there to help bring me back, she's part necromancer, remember."

Derek sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair, then rubbing his eyes with his hands, frowning deeply as he thought everything over.

"I don't like it," he said finally, "but I think it's the best plan we have."

Chloe smiled and she stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him lightly on the lips.

Derek gave a weak smile and wrapped his arms around her, "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this."

"You're agreeing to it because you know it's the right thing to do." She said.

He just sighed and lowered his head down to kiss her.

* * *

**Jessa's POV**

Jessa watched as Jon showed Simon a bedroom where he could stay for however long they were staying at his house. Jessa was impressed, the place was huge with plenty of rooms everywhere.

Simon just thanked the crazy necromancer and stood in the middle of the room, looking at it.

Jon nodded to her as he left Simon and her alone in the room, shutting the door behind him.

Once the door was closed, Simon let out a huge sigh, his shoulders slumping, his whole body screaming weariness. With a groan he shuffled his feet over to the bed and threw himself on it, burying his head in the pillow there.

Jessa watched him, a small sad smile on her lips, her eyes suddenly wet.

She had watched his and Derek's fight just moments ago and knew that Simon would be feelling horrible. She had watched as both brothers traded insults back and forth, each saying nasty things, and she had known then that they were both going to regret it. And she was right, here was Simon, regreting everything he had just told Derek in his anger.

She was more than certain that Chloe was trying to make Derek feel better wherever they were now, and Jessa wished she could do the same for Simon.

Jessa sighed, once again hating the fact that she no longer had her body and was stuck in the spirit world. Brushing off the self-pity, she walked over to the bed that Simon was lying on. She reached forward and tried to run her hand through his hair like she always did whenever he was stressed out, she frowned sadly when her hand went through him. She settled for sitting beside his head, she felt the need to be close to him even if he didn't know she was there. It made her feel better.

She was having trouble accepting the fact that she didn't have a body, watching everyone around her, talking about her, thinking about her, and yet not able to see her while she could see them. It was extremely depressing. It was nice that Chloe could see her, could talk to her and help translate for her, but it just wasn't the same.

It was good to see Purple again, her oldest friend, good to hug her and actually met resistance. The spirit world only brought one good thing, and that was Purple, but right now Purple was watching Nadinka's movements all the way over in LA, and Jessa was alone again.

She was knocked out of her thoughts by Simon suddenly punching his pillow. She jumped at the movement and watched as he repeatedly hit the pillow over and over again, cursing as he did so, obviously angry about something.

"Damn Derek! Damn Chloe! Damn Jon! Damn everyone!"

"Simon," she said, as if he could actually hear her, "stop."

"I hate this!" He exclaimed, "I hate everything!" He sat up quickly and threw the pillow across the room and watched as it hit the oppisite wall and slid down to the floor.

And then his angry expression crumpled and he put his head in his hands.

"Oh, Simon." She breathed, quickly blinking away tears, moving to sit down beside him, wanting to put a hand on his shoulder but didn't even try because she knew that her hand would just go through him.

He looked up from his hands after a while, and she saw that his eyes were rimmed in red as he held back tears. Her heart just about broke.

"Jessa?" She jerked in surprise when he said her name. She stared at him intently, wondering if she had somehow gotten through to him, if he could see her.

He wasn't looking at her, though, he was studying the room intently, as if waiting for something to appear. "Jessa? Are you here?"

She slumped down, defeated, he couldn't see her, it was stupid to think otherwise.

"I miss you." He said quietly, and she moved to look him directly in the face, wanting to see his face as he talked. "I miss you so much." He forced out a short laugh, looking down at his hands, "I don't even know if you're in here, for all I know I'm talking to myself..."

"You're not," she murmured, "I'm right here." She reached for his hands, only to go through him. Again. She felt tears burning her eyes.

"I know you're mad at me for what I said to Derek." He said, and she nodded, narrowing her eyes at the memory of the foolishness, "And I want you to know that I am sorry that I said what I said..."

"You should be," she told him, "it was cruel and inconsiderate."

"It was cruel to say what I did, and I wish I could take it back." He twisted his fingers together, "Derek's my brother, and I love him, and I can't believe I said those things."

"He'll forgive you," She felt a tear drip down her face, "I know Derek and I know he will forgive you. He's feels bad too, I know he does."

"He'll never forgive me, not after those things I said about Chloe." He groaned, "Chloe must hate me now, too."

"No," Jessa said firmly, "Chloe knows that that whole fight was stupid. She doesn't care about what you said, Simon. And to be honest Chloe can't hold a grudge to save her life."

He sighed, "I wish you were here."

"I am here."

"I wish you were _here_ here. I wish I could hear you, see you, kiss you, hold your hand, listen to you laugh, watch you argue..." A tear dripped down his face as tears poured down hers, "God, I never knew how much I loved you until you weren't here." She watched him smile grimly, "Funny how things work."

"Simon..." She breathed.

"I love you, Jessa, I love you more than anything and I wish you were back because I miss you so much." His eyes started roaming the room again, and for a split second his eyes met hers, but it was only for a second.

Sighing deeply, he stood and walked right through her. He rubbed his eyes, getting rid of the few tears that had fallen. "I'll get you back, Jessa, you're coming back, don't worry."

"I'm not worried, Simon." She said weakly as he walked out of the room, "I love you..."

**Awwwww... I love those two... It hurts me to write this. Eh, not really, I'm a total sadist. **

**Sooooooo, was anyone OOC? Did you like it? What did you think of Jessa's point of view? What did you think of Chloe and Derek's conversation? What did you think of Simon and Derek's fight? HELP ME! I need to know if you guys liked it as much as I did? All you have to do is review! Please review! Please? I beg of thee! ... please?...**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


	13. Chapter 13

**Ugh. I hate the first part of this chapter. I tried to so something cool and give you a part of a chapter in Derek's point of view, but I feel as if I failed epically. I want to get rid of it, but for the sake of the story, I can't. Derek's point of view is the whole reason why I took so long to update. Massive writer's block/self-doubt. But I forced myself to get through it (it sucks, especially the end, I was just bull-crapping my way through). For your guys sake. Plus I love the part after Derek's point of view. It saves everything. Or at least I hope so.**

**Disclaimer: Why yes, I am Kelley Armstrong in disguise, secretly writing fanfiction to help get rid of my excess creative juices. If you like Jessa I might put her in my book... Haha. I'm just kidding. I'm not Kelley. And I don't own Darkest Powers.**

Chapter 13: Tough Situations

**Derek's POV**

Walking back into that kitchen was one of the hardest things that Derek ever had to do, but he knew that it was just a start to the chain of hard experiences that he was about to set off. Without thinking about it, he squeezed Chloe's hand, and he felt her squeeze back. It made him feel better to have her with him, she always managed to get him to think things through and he knew that with her around he wouldn't make mistakes. Or so he hoped

That thought was then immediately followed by the thought of having decided to let Chloe risk her life to get Jessa back. He knew that it was the best plan they had, he had always known that, had known it even before Jon had suggested it, but he had, and still was, finding it hard to accept the fact that this plan involved purposely getting Chloe killed. He couldn't do it, his instincts rebelled against the slightest thought of it, killing the girl that he loved? No. An automatic no. Why would he ever want to do that?

But he knew it had to be done. Jessa needed to be saved. The only way to get the demon Nadinka out of her body was to kill Jessa (or at least her body) that way Nadinka would be transported into the afterlife. But killing Jessa would be the problem. Jessa was part werewolf and Nadinka had demon powers, if they attempted to kill Jessa Nadinka could fight back and hurt someone. But if they managed to get Nadinka into Chloe's body then Chloe would be able to use her powers to control Nadinka while Chloe was killed, thus ensuring that no one would be hurt and Nadinka would be gone.

Killing Chloe was the best way to save Jessa, the best way to ensure that Nadinka didn't lash out and hurt Simon, his dad, Chloe's aunt, or Jessa herself. Jessa needed to be saved and this was the best way. He wasn't going to just allow Jessa to be possessed, he couldn't do that. Jessa meant a lot to him. Nothing romantic, he could never view Jessa in a romantic way, but as a sister. There was a bond between them, a bond that he assumed only two werewolves could make, and that bond was strong connecting him to Jessa in many ways. He couldn't let her get hurt, but that had already happened so it was up to him to make sure that she was saved.

But the safest way of saving her involved killing the girl he loved.

He really didn't want to kill Chloe, and even though he had already decided on it, he still felt part of himself telling him that he couldn't kill her, that it was best to just take the risk that killing Jessa posed. Derek knew that it was his wolf instincts that were telling him this. Chloe was right when she had called him protective, because he was, because it was his instincts to protect the ones he loved. This ingrained need to protect her was blocking out any rational or logical thought that he had. So he tried to force back his protective instinct so he could examine all the variables in the situation, so he could fully accept that risking Chloe's life was the best thing to do.

So Chloe and him walked through Jon's house and into the kitchen to resume the discussion that had ended before with him and Simon fighting.

His dad was talking to Chloe's aunt at a table that sat off to the side of the kitchen. His dad was trying to convince her that they had to kill Chloe to ensure everyone's safety. Derek frowned at this, he hadn't thought about Chloe's aunt having to agree on the plan. But then he gave a mental shrug; Chloe's aunt was very gullible and unsure of herself, it won't take much to get her to agree to the plan, especially if everyone else was okay with it. Tori and Jon were talking, and Derek wondered where Simon was.

He didn't have to wonder for very long, Derek could hear his brother's footsteps as he made his way towards the kitchen. Derek felt uneasy about his brother's approach, he had forgiven Simon for what he had said, but had Simon forgiven him? Derek wasn't sure, but he knew that it was entirely possible that Simon hadn't, Derek usually cooled down a lot faster than him.

He shook his head. He didn't need this. Right now he needed to focus on making the plans needed to ensure Jessa's retrieval. That was all that really mattered right now.

"Is everyone ready to continue the discussion?" His dad asked, once Simon had sat down at the table. Everyone nodded their consent. "Okay, who has something to say?"

"I think we should go ahead with Jon's plan." Derek said bluntly, causing everyone but Chloe to look at him with shock. He supposed it was to be expected, he was just bitterly opposed to the plan less than an hour ago. "It's the best course of action available to us," Derek continued, "all we need to do is come up with a way to safely stop and restart Chloe's heart."

"An electric shock would be the best." Aunt Lauren murmured quietly from across the room. Derek looked at her in surprise. She was on board with the plan as well?

"Will this do?" Tori asked, holding her hands out and causing a lightning bolt to form between them.

Aunt Lauren frowned, "We'll have to test and see how strong it is and if you can control it before we decide."

"So it looks like we've decided on this plan, then." Kit said, smirking. "We'll have to work out a few kinks and maybe practice a few things, but there's no rush, Jessa's body isn't going to go anywhere where we won't be able to find it. Meeting dismissed."

And with that everyone broke into groups and started discussing topics of interest. Derek walked straight over to Simon.

"Simon, I'm sorry how I acted. I was being stupid and-" Simon held up a hand and caused Derek to stop talking.

His brother looked tired and weary, and suddenly Derek felt even worse about having yelled at him. "It's fine, Derek." Simon said quietly, "You were mad, I was mad, and we weren't thinking. I apologize for what I said and I forgive you. Problem solved."

Derek nodded, unsure if Simon really did forgive him. "We'll get Jessa back, Simon, you know that right. She's going to come back, no matter what."

Simon gave his brother a weak smile, "Yeah, I know."

**Jessa's POV**

She was so relieved to see that Simon and Derek made up, at least Simon wouldn't have to worry about his brother being mad at him anymore, giving him one less thing for him to stress about. And one last thing for her to stress about as well.

She would be lying if she said that the spirit world wasn't stressful. Maybe it wasn't the spirit world that was stressful, it was just the conditions under which she was in it that were stressful. She had so many things to worry about. The main one being where her body was and when she was going to get it back. Then there was also Simon and how he was dealing with her absence. Then there was what Nadinka was doing with her body, and that one was the biggest and the scariest mystery.

And number one on her list of worries as Purple appeared in front of her. "Jessa!" Her best friend exclaimed, "Come quickly, I need your help!" And then both her and Purple were traveling through the spirit world, teleporting from Kentucky all the way to LA in a matter of seconds.

"Where is she?" Jessa asked Purple, looking around the casino for Nadinka.

"There." Purple pointed towards the bar. Jessa looked in that direction and grimaced. Sitting on one of the bar stools was her own body, wearing one of the skankiest outfits she had ever laid her eyes on. Nadinka might as well have just put a sign on her body that said 'Open for business. Will come cheap.'

And that was what Jessa as worried about

Her and Simon were in love, and it was true that every once in a while they would have an extremely heated make-out session, but they had never actually had sex. So Jessa was still a virgin. And she intended to stay that way until her and Simon felt like it was the right time, because Jessa knew that her first time would be with Simon, and she wanted it to be with Simon, and she wasn't about to let some demon whore screw it up.

Jessa knew that the first thing Nadinka would be after having spent a few centuries in a run down shack was sex. And Jessa was going to make sure she didn't get it. She didn't want her body being used that way. She didn't want some man she had never met before doing that stuff to her. And she was pretty sure that Nadinka wasn't all that concerned when it came to STD's and birthcontrol.

Jessa walked right up to her body, dressed in a dress that could pass for a low-cut shirt and wearing make-up that made her look like a hooker raccoon, Nadinka really had transformed her body. And not in a good way. At the moment the demon was talking to an attractive guy at the bar counter, her hand on his thigh.

"You just better stop right now, Nadinka." Jessa said, standing beside the demon and crossing her arms.

Nadinka's eyes flicked to Jessa, her brow gave a slight frown as recognition flooded her eyes, but otherwise the demon didn't react.

"My dad owns half the cost from Maine to Georgia." The guy Nadinka had been talking to was saying, a slight slur in his voice, "I'm going to inherit it all one day, baby."

"That's wonderful, Marcus." Nadinka purred, her eyes flitting back to Jessa. "Hey, baby?"

"Yes?" Marcus feel under Nadinka's seductive eyes.

"I think I left my purse over by the card tables. Can you go get it?" Nadinka gave an alluring smile, "It has my room key in it."

Marcus's eyes widen when he understood what Nadinka was implying, "Of course, sweet cheeks." And then he was lost in the sea of people.

"What do you want, she-wolf?" Nadinka asked, turning to face Jessa.

"Don't use my body for sex, you parasite." Jessa made her voice cold and hard.

"It's my body now, little girl, and there is nothing you can do about it. I can do whatever I want." Nadinka smiled at her, and Jessa ignored the urge to shudder. It was so weird to see her body talking to her, but it being so unlike herself. It was easy to believe that it wasn't actually her body in front of her, what with the wardrobe and all the make-up, but Jessa still was given the creeps of seeing her own body be so unlike herself.

"It's my body, you whore. You have no right to be in it." Jessa clintched her teeth together.

Nadinka shrugged off Jessa's words. "Speaking of whores," the demon said, "I meant to ask you this earlier, are you a virgin?"

"You're in my body, don't you know?" Jessa was loathe to actually answer the demon.

Nadinka rolled her eyes and took a sip from the cocktail in her hand. "Kids these days, don't know anything. No, I don't know if you're a virgin or not because I can't access your memories. Why? Because all memories are stored in the spirit of a person, not the brain. How else would you know everything about yourself right now if your memories weren't stored in you spirit?"

Jessa thought about that. It did make sense.

"So are you a virgin, girl?" Nadinka asked forcefully.

"What does it matter?"

"I will take that as a yes." Nadinka murmured, "No matter, that boy seems like he enjoys a challenge. Just wait until I tell him it's my first time. Or rather your first time." Nadinka laughed, smiling evilly to herself.

"It won't matter because you two are never going to make it back to your room." Jessa told her firmly.

"That's rich coming from you, girl." Nadinka laughed, but at the same time the guy, Marcus came running up to Nadinka, his face pale and scared.

"G-ghost!" Marcus said weakly. "There was a g-ghost! I'm out of this place!" And with that the guy ran off.

Nadinka turned to glare at Jessa. "You will pay for this, girl." Nadinka said coldly.

"Not likely." Jessa said, clipply. Then she teleported her way back to where Purple was hiding. "What did you do this time?" She asked her.

Purple smiled. "I put on a bed sheet and scared him. He thought it was a joke until he lifted up the sheet and saw that nothing was there. It was brilliant."

Jessa smiled, relieved, "Thanks, Purple, I owe you one."

"No problem," Purple assured her, "I don't want some sleaze-ball sleeping with my best friend's body. It's my duty to protect you."

"Do you mind staying on sleaze-ball duty while I go inform Chloe on the new situation?" Jessa asked.

"No problem." Purple said, "I always wanted to go around scaring people. Now I have a reason."

"Just don't get carried away." Jessa told her gently, before she teleported back to Jon's house back in Kentucky.

"CHLOE?" Jessa called out loudly, not seeing her in the kitchen where Simon and Derek were now talking quietly.

"Right here!"Chloe called, hurrying into the kitchen.

"We didn't call you." Derek said, frowning at Chloe, but Chloe just shook her head, walking towards Jessa, saying. "It's Jessa." Both boys perked up at this.

"What's wrong?" Chloe asked her, some how knowing that something was indeed wrong.

"Well," Jessa began feel uncomfortable. She looked over at Simon, worried about what he would think, and knowing that he would react badly to it, but it was a big issue that needed to be brought up. "There's something you should know..." And then Jessa went on to explain the sex situation to Chloe.

When she was done Chloe just stood there, her mouth wide open in shock. "Um... I hadn't even thought about that." Chloe said slowly. "That's a problem, isn't it?"

"A very big problem." Jessa agreed.

"What is?" Simon asked, coming up to Chloe, "Is Jessa alright?" He looked around the room, as if he could see her.

"Um..." Chloe trailed off and glanced over at Jessa, a question in her eyes.

"Go ahead and tell him." Jessa said. "He needs to know, anyways. He's affected by this too."

"Chloe?" Simon tried to get her attention again, "What's wrong with Jessa?"

"Nothing is wrong with Jessa..." Chloe said slowly, frowning, "but rather her body..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Simon asked, "Is her body hurt or something?"

"Um..." Jessa felt bad for Chloe, this was an extremely uncomfortable thing to say, "No, her body isn't hurt..."

"Then what is it?" Simon asked, exasperated.

"Nadinka's trying to have sex with guys!" Chloe spat out the sentence in a rush, then she cringed, waiting for Simon's reaction.

Jessa watched Simon's face. He rocked backwards like he had been punched, then blinked, as he tried to understand what Chloe had said.

"W-what?" Jessa slowly saw the shock leaving his face and anger replacing it, along with realization that it had to be true. "Are you kidding me?"

"Simon-" Chloe and Jessa both began.

"Oh my God," Simon grabbed his hair, staring at the floor, "I hadn't even thought of that! Shit!" Jessa raised her eyebrows when Simon cussed, it would have been funny under different circumstances.

Simon looked up and glared at no one in particular. He started heading towards the door, his hands sparking with electricity, his face set in anger.

"Where are you going?" Derek asked, quickly blocking Simon's path.

"Where do you think I'm going?" Simon asked harshly, "I'm going to go make sure that some guy doesn't sleep with my girlfriend! Move Derek!"

"Simon, you can't just leave. Not now." Derek said gently.

"So you expect me to just do nothing as some guy has sex with my girlfriend? NO! Derek MOVE!" A huge electric bolt exploded from Simon's hands on the last word, hitting Derek, causing him to fall.

"Simon!" Chloe shouted, running up to Derek, "Stop it!"

"I won't let Jessa get hurt that way!" Simon shouted.

"She's fine!" Chloe shot back at him, "Purple and Jessa have it under control for the moment. There's no need to worry." Jessa watched as Chloe helped a stunned Derek sit up.

Simon groaned in frustration, he moved away from the door and put his head against the wall, punching it repeatedly.

"Simon..." Jessa went and stood behind him. If only she could have five minutes with him; if only she could talk to him. She would make everything okay if she could talk to him.

"Simon?" It was Chloe, standing behind him, Derek was a few feet behind her, uninjured from the shock.

Simon groaned again, weakly punching the wall with his fist one more time before sliding down to his knees, putting his head in his hands. He said something unintelligible.

"What?" Chloe asked.

"Is Jessa okay?" He asked, looking up at Chloe, his eyes begging her to say yes.

Chloe smiled in relief, glad that Simon's rampage was over, "Yeah, she's fine. Her and Purple are making sure that Nadinka isn't alone with a guy. They're just worried that they won't be able to stop one if we wait to long to act on our plan."

"How's Jessa taking this?" Simon asked, his eyes once again roaming the room, as if he could see her.

Chloe looked at Jessa for her answer.

"I'm fine." Jessa said, getting down on her knees next to him, "I'm not happy with the situation, but I'm dealing with it. And I'm keeping a good watch on my body to make sure nothing happens to it... I miss you."

Chloe translated for Jessa.

"I miss you, too." Simon said, looking in Jessa's direction after Chloe pointed it out to him. "I'm going to make sure you get back soon. I'll make sure nothing else happens to you."

Jessa smiled at his confidence. He really couldn't do anything to stop Nadinka, but she made herself believe that he could.

"I love you, Simon."

"I love you too, Jessa."

Jessa looked at Chloe, "I have to go help Purple get rid of guys. Can you tell him I'm leaving?" Chloe nodded.

With one last look at Simon, Jessa closed her eyes and transported back to LA to help her friend stop Nadinka from having sex.

**Sooooo... yeah. I know I took forever and I know I failed epically with Derek's point of view and I am never attempting him again. I just can't do Derek. But I hoped you liked everything else. And I feel the need for a Chloe Derek make-out scene. I wanted one in this chapter, but it just wouldn't fit. Maybe the next one? I will try to make it work. And I have no idea when the next chapter will be up, but I am so sorry it took me so long to update. I will try harder with the next chapter. **

**Let me know what you thought about this chapter. OH! I almost have a hundred reviews! I can't wait until I reach it! So review please! They make me so happy!**

**Thanks- Cheerfully Blue**


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